Untitled

Oil on Canvas, 2'x6'

   This painting was the end/beginning.  At this point in time I had been creating my work with a certain amount of specifics.  I wanted the work to be a size that was relatable.  Some of my prior pieces were roughly the size of a door so that the viewer would feel like they were standing at a doorway.  Secondly I was doing collages under the paintings.  Sometime the pictures underneath had a particular connection, sometimes they did not.  Some of the images would show or be painted over entirely.  I particularly chose images that could be described as Americana.  Images of presidents, first ladies, propaganda, war images, etc.  I wanted the viewer to have something to relate to in the painting, otherwise my work would just be over realized nostalgia.  Third, the images I painted were all memories.

    This was one panel of a triptych.  Each piece was really skinny and tall.  I wanted the viewer to feel like they were peering into my paintings.  I never finished the other pieces.  I found that I was following a formula.  I was not connected to what I was creating.  I was over thinking my concept.

   This was supposed to be a spot in the orange orchards in the neighborhood I grew up in that got torn down a few years after my family and I left.  I often walked/ran through these orchards while my mother was in a coma.  One time I was walking through and walked into this area that was completely walled off by orange trees.  I like the solitude it presented.