9”x12” graphite on canvas
“…Sweaty, have a good show! What you do is so important!”
^this is the ending to my favorite joke.
The Miracle of Melancholy
9” x 12”
Sometimes I obsess over the beauty of sadness. sadness allows a single person to experience deep and meaningful emotion without another person needing to be present. It is also one of the few emotions that do not interrupt thinking (I also find that anger can be very stimulating).
I thought of this piece just after my grandpa died long after everybody thought that he was going to. He had been sick for years and had been talking about the imminence of his death for even longer. This allowed me to experience the catharsis over a prolonged time, which, of course negated impact altogether. It was almost as if my sadness was on some sort of unspoken schedule. It was un spontaneous and deadening. And the heavy, intervening mediation of the catholic church only removed me from the experience more so.
I plan to make more work concerning this event idea, but for now my thoughts on the topic are scattered and undeveloped.
Hand and spine from anatomy book.
When I think of the exotic shapes that are hidden just below our skin, I am stricken both with wonder and with disgust. I think it would be an enlightened stance to accept all forms of existence as part of the human being. But it is hard because so much about us is gross.
Flatland Invader!
24”x18” acrylic on canvas
We are beings with limited sensory organs to observe the multi-dimensional medium of space-time. By taking out the subjects of the painting and imposing an polygonal behemoth I wanted to express the feeling of thinking about such an abstract perception using narrative structure, which I find to be the most relatable medium in art.
The behavior of existence (or things that exist)
The niche marketing format that permeates internet culture seems to have given special preeminence to cultural feedback loops which in turn reenforces philosophical insularity within individuals. We have created an information landscape wherein all points are equally accessible, and the only limiting geography is our own interest. We spin our own cocoons, overspecialize and cultivate our own weakness. Our weaknesses make us susceptible to predation which will force us to adapt or die off. Though we may transcend biology in the near future, it seems that the principals of selection/ evolution will haunt us in whatever form.
Forms that do a thing will do that thing in the surrounding environment until the environment resembles the form. This behavior will happen recursively until it encounters an external, conflicting behavior. In which case it will consume, be consumed, or mutate. Though the form is lost or changed, the assimilative behavior remains. This behavior also pervades existence throughout the different micro/macro strata so long as the elements are not too fundamental or uniform.
The things that exist right now are the unfinished result of this recursive assimilation behavior. The very medium of existence is likely a result of this behavior if it is not the behavior itself.
