"Tidal Wave" Painting

Artist Statement for works shown: Art can be a physical (or sometimes non-physical) manifestation of something inside the artist's mind, or a link to his or her soul. People today experience a link between each other in ways unheard of in previous times. All sorts of individuals are linking up with or networking with large groups of people via the numerous forms of electronic communication available today. A continuous stream of data about friends and world events is a completely normal part of one's day, especially for those with laptops or smart phones. There is unprecedented access to to information, ideas, and data of all types from all sorts of individuals. Ironically, however, despite this increased level of awareness, society is still struggling with larger scale natural or environmental issues that require broader changes. Changes that may require, say, an unprecedented level of communication and information access. One might see a movie on global warming or how the planet's oul supply is almost depleted, but how easy is it for most people to stop using cars? People panic about gas prices because we need cars to survive. One might watch a video online about how plastic never breaks down and is wreaking all sorts of havok on the planet's oceans, but how possible is it to avoid using plastic on a constant basis? Even knowing the dangers, most people can't discontinue their normal lives. The sheer scale of some environmental issues that our cultures will have to eventually adapt to is what influenced my choice to work on a larger size of substrate than I normally would. I employ both broad stroked painting techniques with oil paint and spread graphite as well as more detailed, personal renderings of figures. This contrast in scale reflects the problems society will have to face and the very personal stake every individual has in how we act or don't act. Text has either been drawn in manually or added with image transfers to visually show the type of communication that goes on regularly in our lives and sometimes is the only source of colorful data during our average black-and-white days. People and buildings are rendered more realistically versus the more abstract "natural disasters" because the threats we face on a larger scale from the environment, although very real and very threatening, can often seem distant or hard to grasp, even after we learn of them.