Paintings > 2016

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Memorandum
Oil on aluminum sheet
38 x 36 in.
2016

[Sold at HEDGE gallery to Private Collector]

This painting is a record of how we romanticize our past, no matter how much it may have entered the fray or turned turbulent. When looking at the painting, one can’t help but notice the structure it is on. A sort of aluminum slab, fashioned with three vertical slices downward and one horizontal, somewhat like bars. I chose to work on this structure because of how malleable it was, yet at the same time how un-recyclable. Much like ourselves throughout life and our memories of individuals and places. The bars were somewhat reminiscent of how we become barred in by our past relations to one another.

A profile view can be seen of a figure surrounded by energetic brushwork, encapsulating and exaggerating contours. The color of this painting is partly neutral and only furthers a feeling of longing or searching for a vitality or intensity that has been lost. Along with color choice, there is a symbolic gesture that references this, which literally protrudes from the headspace of the main figure. This brownish-green protrusion reaches out from the head of the figure to the faint silhouette of another on the right side. This protrusion is symbolic of the mental act of reminiscing. This silhouette was created through the re-mediatization of a physical polaroid. Through the act of taking a photo of an older polaroid photo I took, my own silhouette found its way into the reference for this painting. In a final attempt to join those who have gone separate paths, only to reach out to one another through the act of reminiscing.