Levitate//Gravitate: series (2016-2019) consists of roughly life sized portraits in watercolor. These works discuss a metaphysical perspective on the human condition, through an exploration of visual cues that suggest levitation. Individuals and objects portrayed in these paintings seem to be experiencing a type of liberation from the most basic human constraint, the reality of gravity. Watercolor paper is stretched to a full sheet of plywood and painted on an easel. This vertical surface not typical for watercolor, allows the painting to drip, acting as a reminder of the downward force that each figure transcends.
While they are in a literal sense uplifting, many suggest a dichotomy between freedom and constraint, and it is difficult to tell if figures are floating fluidly or frozen in space, somehow trapped in an odd metaphysical environment. The paintings highlight a tension between opposing forces, and are intended to allow their viewers to interpret their visual cues as metaphorical of the modern human condition: absurdity and reason, chaos and order, privilege and plight.
Commissioned Portraits. Loosely inspired by Jan Van Eyck, these are painted in oil on solid 3/4” thick oak panels. Similar to many of Van Eyck’s portraits, there is an emphasis on crowding both the face and hands into the small composition with a disregard for actual proportional relationships.
