Artist Statement:
My painting Moon in the Swirling Sky of Night included in the 2021 Southwest Washington Juried Exhibition is a reflection of my view of human nature’s capability to survive the destructive potential of dark times. The opaque blackness of flat black enamel in the lower part of this painting represents the power of whatever it is that would destroy us. Rising above the chaos is a transparent, energy-filled orb that seems to breathe - like the human spirit surviving and rising.
When painting this piece, my thoughts were of the German artist, Anselm Kiefer, who painted his own visceral responses to the aftermath of WWII. He used bold expressive energy and materials that matched the destruction of war – charred remnants of civilization and nature. Personally, I struggle with whether humanity and the human soul will indeed survive its present crises, but I choose to believe and paint as if the soul (that “energy-filled orb”) has the power to transcend all impediments. So, this is a dark painting, but not one without hope.
The process to create this painting involved three steps: First, with thick black enamel paint I quickly and energetically attacked the surface of some brown butcher’s paper. The dark, flat, opaque paint expressed what I feel sometimes - a foreboding sense of chaos/destruction. I needed to step aside from the darkness, take a deep breath, grab a fresh piece of white paper and start anew. Using thin acrylic, oil stick, and graphite, I wanted to create something light, something floating and transcendent, something like the moon. Finally, by merging and adhering the first painting (darkness of the night) with the second (lightness of the moon), the two pieces were combined to become the Moon in the Swirling Sky of Night, a existential statement about human nature and survival.