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My new work is concerned with the reality of experience. In particular, the reality of the experience I have been and still am going through with my wife’s health. My wife, diagnosed three months ago with a rare genetic condition, had her colon removed and her small intestine reconstructed to avoid life-ending cancer on July 1, 2009. Her surgery was anticipated to last six hours—it lasted seven, and we were told little at the time as to why it was lasting longer. Those seven hours, especially the seventh, were some of the longest in my life and were shared with my parents, my wife’s mother, and a family friend. This was also one of the most real and felt experiences of my life, and the portraits that I am currently working on are reflections of this experience.
These portraits are done in a high realism to reflect the reality of the situation that influenced them. The surfaces are kept flat and controlled to keep the focus on the subject and not on the paint that created the image. Unlike in previous work, where my attention was on variation in surface texture and tactile paint qualities, my current intent is using the act of painting as meditation and catharsis. The compositions and empty backgrounds are also meant to be reflective of the experience, which is more concerned with emotions and feelings, rather than being a record of a specific time and place.
In conjunction with these works, I also plan on exploring the trying time of my wife’s recovery after this first surgery. Using portraits and multi-figured compositions on large canvases, I will meditate upon this experience of emotional, mental, and physical hardship with the hope of further catharsis.
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