Interior Life 3: Fury Print

This is the third work I painted in a series (“Interior Life, description below). For this painting, I wanted to focus on that feeling of fury or rage. Anger is dangerous. It’s hard to control. But it’s also powerful. It gets things done. This is true both in a literal violent sense and in a political sense. So when I set out to capture anger, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I knew it had to be the first. First, as a martial artist, I felt it conveyed that sense of power and focused utility. But secondly, it’s also been an unruly year. And at the time of painting, police violence, racism, and systematic injustice were being exposed yet again as a social foundation. The raised fist felt like a no-brainer. This painting is this intentionally evocative of solidarity, protest, and righteous resistance. It’s far past time to act. On the “Interior Life” series: I’ve spent a lot of time this year trying to be more aware of my feelings, my experiences, my interior life. And the more I become aware, the more I also become aware of their unique textures and impacts as embodied experiences. Each is painted with a smooth, generic black figure. The feelings themselves are painted with high viscosity paint, and are layered thickly. Indeed, in most cases, they come about .5+ cm beyond the canvas surface. The goal was to capture their reality and dimensionality. I also wanted to make them feel uncontrollable and volatile, like they were escaping. Each represents my attempt to process visually an emotional state. I hope that the feelings evoked will be deeply familiar to any viewer.