Bewilderment
“Bewilderment increases in the presence of mirrors.” — Tarjei Vesaas ( The Boat in the Evening, 1968)
A body of work exploring the softened reality of the present moment, these paintings and drawings present imagery of flooding, desertification, and ecological disaster, in saturated and fantastical colors, constructed from forms that are artifacts of surface. Pours of house paint, faux painting techniques, flocking, stencils, collaged and transferred materials, and objects, are arranged to suggest pictorial spaces inspired by the backgrounds of cartoons, contradict space by asserting surface. In this way, the burdensome history of painting frames these materials as a reflection of the intentional ignorance in the human condition. May we know ourselves in time to save ourselves.