Chantico Painting

Working in reverse, the image is constructed within a frame of taut silk. I paint from behind the canvas to extrude oil paint to the front, pushing paint in choreographed gestures that reveal themselves on the other side, like the texture of a tapestry. Each tiny gap formed by the warp and weft of silk thread is filled with a pixel of colour, resembling the organic patterns of lichens or the skin of a reptile, or a galaxy. The pressing of paint unveils to us the underside of the mark, the moment of contact between the paint and the surface that we would never typically see. Light and liquid play pivotal roles in the creation and meaning of the artwork. Transverse orientation is the behaviour of flying insects that orient themselves toward a distant source of light. Light passing through the silk serves as a guide, revealing areas where paint has not yet touched the surface; it acts as an anchor point, a signal, a place to catch the light. As the screen fills with the movement of paint, the light from the other side is slowly obscured to the artist behind the screen. The composition exists in its unpredictability, engaging in a dialectic that dissolves the hierarchy between painting as an illusion or imitation and painting as a free and material process.