The material focus of my recent artistic practice has been on the physicality of paint via a time-intensive process. After accumulating on a support—then permanently pulled up from it—multilayered sheets of acrylic paint are sliced, carved, and/or peeled. These abstract paintings, called Contortions, hang directly on the wall where they bend, sag, and stretch.
This elasticity brought to my mind the body and skin as well as the spastic gymnastics kids do to show-off. I related this to strategic, artistic maneuvering in pursuit of originality, historical progress, revolution, fame, and so on. Consequently, I made some of the Contortions allude to an artist, an art historical movement, artistic device, or contemporary trend in order to demystify and poke lightheartedly at artistic conventions. This occurs predominantly through color but may also manifest through cutting or other means. For example, before painting could be regarded as an object in itself, it was a window through which to look. In Window Contortion, the center has flopped out leaving only the wall to see rather than an illusionistic scene.
The aestheticised decay, created by cutting out oval chips with a box-cutter, suggests the moth-eaten, rot, or fire damage. This is particularly evident in my series of Fades, which is an off-shoot of the Contortions series. In each Fade, the acrylic paint fades from color to color through the built-up layers creating a gradation. Referring to film and video editing, the fade is a transitional device starting or ending a scene or cross-fading between scenes. Like all things—both 'good' and 'bad'—even transitions end and something new begins. I wanted to meditate on and embrace the certainty of change. Through its impermanence and imperfection, my work reflects on cycles in life as well as cycles in art.
The technique of building up and cutting away all this layered paint not only embeds the work with a temporal record, it produces a great deal of debris. In the spirit of 'using every part of the animal,' the acrylic paint chips are collected in boxes where more time must elapse before they fuse into porous cubes. The result seems precarious, as though the simple geometry could easily return to a pile of constituent parts.
The paint balls, also made entirely of layer upon layer of acrylic paint, cite the obsessive compulsive tactic deployed in art making, accumulation, locker room humor, and male domination in the arts. In Powder Puff Contortion #2, two strips of layered acrylic paint act as straps which sag under the weight of two paint balls—the golden globes. Paint Ball Sale specifically references David Hammons's commodity critique, Bliz-aard Ball Sale (1983 ), which consisted of snow balls for sale street vendor style.
This elasticity brought to my mind the body and skin as well as the spastic gymnastics kids do to show-off. I related this to strategic, artistic maneuvering in pursuit of originality, historical progress, revolution, fame, and so on. Consequently, I made some of the Contortions allude to an artist, an art historical movement, artistic device, or contemporary trend in order to demystify and poke lightheartedly at artistic conventions. This occurs predominantly through color but may also manifest through cutting or other means. For example, before painting could be regarded as an object in itself, it was a window through which to look. In Window Contortion, the center has flopped out leaving only the wall to see rather than an illusionistic scene.
The aestheticised decay, created by cutting out oval chips with a box-cutter, suggests the moth-eaten, rot, or fire damage. This is particularly evident in my series of Fades, which is an off-shoot of the Contortions series. In each Fade, the acrylic paint fades from color to color through the built-up layers creating a gradation. Referring to film and video editing, the fade is a transitional device starting or ending a scene or cross-fading between scenes. Like all things—both 'good' and 'bad'—even transitions end and something new begins. I wanted to meditate on and embrace the certainty of change. Through its impermanence and imperfection, my work reflects on cycles in life as well as cycles in art.
The technique of building up and cutting away all this layered paint not only embeds the work with a temporal record, it produces a great deal of debris. In the spirit of 'using every part of the animal,' the acrylic paint chips are collected in boxes where more time must elapse before they fuse into porous cubes. The result seems precarious, as though the simple geometry could easily return to a pile of constituent parts.
The paint balls, also made entirely of layer upon layer of acrylic paint, cite the obsessive compulsive tactic deployed in art making, accumulation, locker room humor, and male domination in the arts. In Powder Puff Contortion #2, two strips of layered acrylic paint act as straps which sag under the weight of two paint balls—the golden globes. Paint Ball Sale specifically references David Hammons's commodity critique, Bliz-aard Ball Sale (1983 ), which consisted of snow balls for sale street vendor style.
