Blue Paintings |

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The “Blue” and then the “Orange” paintings are ambitious. They are large, 5×7’, they combine thick heavily knifed on paint with thin washes of color, and they use text as a surface and as a mean’s of giving the works additional layers of meaning.

The paintings explore the intimate space we reside within. Their intent is to take the viewer inside both our physical, sexual, and psychological spaces. To realize this physicality and intimacy the materiality of the painting is paramount. The color blue is exploited for the hues inherent depth and ambience. The size of the paintings, populated by almost life size figures, require large gestural movements to fill the space. Additionally, the tension between thick paint and fluid washes and text needs a sensitive welding together of the various surfaces.

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Writing is another important facet of the works. The images explore how our identity and experiences are knitted into our bodies. To further develop this notion writing and words reinforce these themes. At times quotes have been taken from authors: “Every man has a motel room inside of him” (Don DeLillo), “…it would take courage to disappoint their illusions of perfectability” (Philip Roth), or “to pry (sexuality) from its shell in the age of (digital) reproduction causes its aura to wither” (Walter Benjamin). Reading has been a visceral part of me and the capacity to utilize knowledge creatively is an essential facet of my imaginative life.

So the paintings explore the meaning of parenting, how sexuality and memory function, on the shadow of the past in relationships, on the male ego and aging, on the intrusion of technology into our sexual lives, and our relationship between our lived selves and the space we reside in. The works seek to go inside ones consciousness and into the private spaces we inhabit: the bedroom, mirror, studio, and mind.

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Orange Variations

Obviously these two paintings are not blue. However they follow the same trajectory as the blue paintings above them. The use of texture and thin washes of paint are the same, the utilization of text the same, the difference is the colour and the exploration of masculinity divorced from a female context. It felt necessary to create these paintings in another colour as a means of separating them from there counter-parts. It is not that these are about men and the other about women, as they are all painted from the perspective of a man. The series evolved. First large female nudes, nudes within a broader social context, then relationships and sexuality, and finally men.