2024

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Info about the work:

I often place my canvases in conversation with the Earth’s landscapes and create many of my paintings utilizing the four elements (earth, water, fire and air) as co-collaborators. During a recent residency on Milos Island (Aegean Sea, Greece), I found a deserted area to collaborate with nature on a painting and documented the entire process. The painting’s initial charcoal markings were made in part by my gestural movements along with the wind’s command. Next, the canvas was soaked in water (shown in this photograph) before natural pigments were painted onto the final piece, which then dried in the sandy and salty wind.

This photograph is a still from a performance video of the painting’s creation, particularly the moment that captures the waves crashing onto the rock and pouring into this womb-like crevice. This crevice, which also looks like a Venus standing in contrapposto, felt auspicious – particularly on the island where the Venus of Milos was discovered. As each wave crashed onto the surface, the canvas spun around and danced playfully in this Earth-made womb. She then, as captured here, floated motionless in between the sea’s rhythms.

Working in this way is a ceremony to honor nature and remind us how connected we are to her. It also poses questions around ego and authorship in the creation of art. As threats to creativity and the natural world (specifically AI) increase, I believe it’s important to simplify and return to our natural roots. Popular painting materials in contemporary art (acrylics are plastics, and oils require chemicals) eventually harm the earth. Yet, painting practices could widely return to being made of and with our main source. The Earth-womb crevice also odes to the cyclical nature of source.