Phoenix I Painting

Notions of oneness, entanglement and human experience are central to my work. This unfolds through a process that resembles an excavation, involving the continuous addition and subtraction of paint. Using washes, as well as erasure through different materials and overpainting, this continues until I reach an outcome that resonates with me. It is an intuitive search for something that cannot be named or articulated, but which I am certain exists — an essence of sorts. By peeling away all unnecessary layers in painting, I am able to get closer to the true face of things. This search has developed over the last few years, inspired by different scientific discoveries in quantum physics, neuroscience, cosmology, psychology, as well as spiritual teachings, among others. My paintings are an intuitive attempt to depict universal interconnectedness through my own personal lens, letting known and unknown merge on canvas. There are two major approaches that I take to this: 1) starting with figuration and disassembling it; 2) starting with abstraction and letting figurative shapes slowly emerge. Either way, a similar result is achieved, as, embracing the full spectrum, I allow both to coexist and complement one another. Moving over the surface quickly, energetically and mostly through dance, I paint in rapid bursts, through which tensions are opened up across the canvas. A sense of honesty, along with the emotional and psychological charge of my gestures, outweighs my concern for aesthetic appeal. As a result, my paintings are both rough and rhythmic, meditative and tender.