Paintings > 2022

People that we use to know in Life
People that we use to know in Life
Oil on panel
18 x 20.5 in.
2022

Three shadows stand close to one another by a fire, while another seems to be floating in a raft of some sort. Is this a fever dream? A nightmare? The title sheds some clarity, while keeping the precise individuals partly obscured.
The painting can be about loss, it could be about the loss of memories of people we use to know by time itself. While we can remember certain details (the eyes of someone, the shape, maybe sayings, voices etc), a lot of what we remember fades as time slips away.
To this day, I occasionally have dreams of people I use to know, more vivid than what I can recall in a “waking state”.
I was hoping that viewers, after reading the title, could transmit their own faces and identities to the shadowy figures themselves. Maybe it would be passed family members. Maybe it would be friends they grew up with decades ago.
It’s a strange painting for a strange time. But then again, isn’t much of time strange?