Painter’s Remains. November 2023. Acrylic, palette scrapings, used paper towel, used rag, and white glue on canvas. 24 x 30 x 5 inches.
“Painter’s Remains” reclaims used materials without transforming their nature while remaining honest to their original forms and intended functions. Textured black paint is layered with strokes of thinned glue creating a monochromatic scene. Revealing itself as light moves across the canvas, the scene is never fully visible with its matte and reflective surfaces. Emerging from the black, palette scrapings scatter and collect; a used rag and paper towel cling to the canvas as if they are at work. The scene feels cavernous—layers of paint and labor rest upon one another creating a density that evokes depth and passed time.
Rag 12-11, 2023. November 2023. Oil and acrylic on rag. 20 x 16 inches.
Rag 03-12, 2023. December 2023. Oil and acrylic on rag. 20 x 16 inches.
Rag 12-11, 2023 features a paint-covered rag – used over the course of a year – now stretched across a wooden frame. By choosing to understand its markings as history and character, the purposeless, soiled rag is made into an object of adoration and a documentation of time. This artwork takes a tool that has outlived its use and sees the tool for more than its productivity thus giving it new value.
Rag 03-12, 2023 is a second artwork featuring a paint-covered rag stretched across a wooden frame. Similar to the first, this artwork attributes new value to the object through its markings and history. Additionally, the two Rag artworks now reveal one another. Differences in stroke and color express emotions of chaos, control, spontaneity, and repetition portraying a unique relationship with each tool.