Bluegrass State
I am continuously searching for artists and acknowledging how open and how alive painting is. Artist Charlotte Mullins states, “Figure painting is currently experiencing a major revival… In recent decades, a painting as a whole has often been talked about as being in the doldrums, of being moribund or even dead.” I strongly agree, with the addition that not only figure, but all painting is experiencing revival. Mass media has given young artists like myself a chance to see art from all aspects of the world reflecting our different cultures. Therefore, making it a constant race, a race that I have indulged myself into while realizing that there are multiple ways to paint a picture. There is a freedom about painting. This race and freedom together create a struggle within my work and shape the questions, what is a valid subject to paint? What is a valid emotion to paint? How do you paint it? This struggle is a way oil paint is an active experience of a life, which is very unpredictable. I am taking the reality of the paint itself and the actual experience I have seen or been through, and depicting a picture. It is a battle between painting and a battle within me. I am repeatedly discovering new ways of relating two completely different subjects. My paintings want to touch the intangible relationships between subjects and their depictions, and the physicality of the paint itself.
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