MUSINGS, 5/09
Musings/ May, 2009
After Obama was elected I remember walking into my studio and being struck by how gray my work had become. All the color had been drained out of me over the preceding near-decade. I tentatively set about lightening my palette. Tiny cracks began to appear in my general despair with humanity in the form of the skywriting paintings.
It is notable, to me at least, that I am no longer using coded text exclusively. Code is used to communicate only with friends, presumably, or to avoid interception by enemies. The skywriting text, while still desperate, is more public, in a way, than the Morse Code, and has a kind of poignancy; it is assuming a gentler recipient. And, while it still reflects a preoccupation with fear, there appear to be fissures in my cynicism regarding the nature of humankind. Skies in these paintings appear placid and the text is simple, even hopeful in the sense that any act of communication contains an implicit hopefullness. Perhaps by this time next year I'll be making pictures of kittens...
How the 2009 Elections are Changing The Survival Project
After Obama was elected I remember walking into my studio and being struck by how gray my work had become. All the color had been drained out of me over the preceding near-decade. I tentatively set about lightening my palette. Tiny cracks began to appear in my general despair with humanity in the form of the skywriting paintings.
It is notable, to me at least, that I am no longer using coded text exclusively. Code is used to communicate only with friends, presumably, or to avoid interception by enemies. The skywriting text, while still desperate, is more public, in a way, than the Morse Code, and has a kind of poignancy; it is assuming a gentler recipient. And, while it still reflects a preoccupation with fear, there appear to be fissures in my cynicism regarding the nature of humankind. Skies in these paintings appear placid and the text is simple, even hopeful in the sense that any act of communication contains an implicit hopefullness. Perhaps by this time next year I'll be making pictures of kittens...