Fully commit to what has happened
A good friend and fellow artist told me that the darkest line in this one looks like it is trying to get out. That tracks. The whole thing feels coiled tight, wound up, holding a lot under the surface.
Painting is my very deliberate way of trying to understand how stuff works, where it starts, how differentiation happens, how differentiated phenomena fit back together in ways that establish context and give rise to the possibility of meaning. The way fossils preserve an approximation of creature morphology, my aspiration is that my paintings preserve evidence of observation, intention, and deliberate effort. I think of them like batteries that store the energy of the consciousness that went into their making, that can give their energy back when subjected to sustained attention. That’s how I think about most of the art that successfully engages with people, and in doing so, makes a compelling case for being allowed to stick around.