The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Painting

Named after William Blake's prose poem of the same name, this piece explores the tension between opposing forces: energy and reason, flesh and spirit, abstraction and representation. Ultimately, it strikes a balance between them, residing in a continuum from one extreme to another. I painted this piece on raw canvas, starting with oils. As the colors grew more saturated and the paint opaquer, the forms grew more defined. Once recognizable human forms began to emerge, I pushed them back into the abstract with the acrylic magenta, which jumps forward drastically from the oils. The result is a dynamic painting, moving fluidly between opposing energies and elements.