"is your heart beating like a rabbit?" Painting

I am not a writer. I do not keep a diary. But I am a collector and observer, a champion over-thinker. I tell my own story using a vocabulary consisting of lines and marks, color and contrast. To preserve and share my experiences and thoughts, I create paintings. To capture the parts of my story I hope to validate - or understand - I create paintings. These paintings are composed in my home and consist of choreographed elements derived from my immediate surroundings and less structured inner landscape. I create quickly and unforgivingly. Each mark is intentional, perfect or imperfect, becoming a integral part of the final story. about the process: My paintings begin with hatch marks. This element represents time as it takes the longest of my processes but requires the least amount of reaction. I am calm and balanced and allow my mind to wander as my hand moves systematically around the paper. This serves as the base to which the rest of my process will react. Color and contrast come next. The movement of the watercolor as it reacts with water gives me the opportunity to try to express my inner landscape without using words. White oil pastels and charcoal gives extra grit to my vocabulary. Contrast and negative space lend meaning to the story I’m attempting to tell. To incorporate the painting further into my own story, I sometimes add in alternative elements from my immediate surrounding. Mascara, coffee, and dish soap are a few examples of these alternative paints. Blind contour lines depict movement and objects I observe both outside and inside the windows of my home. I draw the people walking past my window lost in their own world as equally complex as my own. With blind control over where the line interacts with the rest of the layered elements, these artistic situations mirror the limited control we have over life. The small opposing layers react to create a more powerful and interesting dialogue. The final element of my work is the title. The titles are simple phrases - small talk - I have collected over the years. They are phrases that resonated with me outside of their intended (and often unknown) context. An overheard conversation on a morning commute becomes a poetic title that evokes existential meaning when paired with the other elements of my work. physical aspects of the work: The painting is created on stretched watercolor paper with wooden stretcher bars. It looks very similar to stretched canvas but is lightweight and fragile. The paper feels taut like a drumhead. Hanging hardware is included in the form of d-rings and wire.