"Gravity that Binds" 30x40" oil on canvas 2025
Artistic Statement about the piece:
A close friend of mine died unexpectedly in the Summer of 2025. I painted this picture to process my grief over the course of four days, five hours a day. The grief was channeled into the brush strokes, exteriorizing my suffering, and influencing the style of representation. The painting contains my inner world at a moment in time.
We're asked how artists can mine the heroic. I believe it is a heroic act to access one's suffering directly, unmediated by language or concepts. The act of creating art enables us to gain such access. The process of accessing and exteriorizing one's inner world -- one's suffering -- through creation is what makes us human. Maybe remembering this basic idea can help us resist the artificial.
Artistic Statement about the piece:
A close friend of mine died unexpectedly in the Summer of 2025. I painted this picture to process my grief over the course of four days, five hours a day. The grief was channeled into the brush strokes, exteriorizing my suffering, and influencing the style of representation. The painting contains my inner world at a moment in time.
We're asked how artists can mine the heroic. I believe it is a heroic act to access one's suffering directly, unmediated by language or concepts. The act of creating art enables us to gain such access. The process of accessing and exteriorizing one's inner world -- one's suffering -- through creation is what makes us human. Maybe remembering this basic idea can help us resist the artificial.