In November of 2019, I made a few small studies using neutral tones, primarily black and white, and going against my usual wont of vivid color. In early 2020, I decided to build on these studies working in a larger format. Then everything changed. The Covid-19 diaspora left me wildly unsettled and though I have always loved painting in isolation, doing so in 2020 perpetually defeated me. As a painter, living with ambiguity and uncertainty, it’s a constant. This was different. Guarding against the virus in concert with relentless news of inexplicable deaths, cruelty, racial pain and anger was overwhelming. These paintings were created in the midst of this tension. There is a painful awareness of inadequacy and they make me feel awkward and uncertain. Do I have a right to this story. Will it appear that I am capitalizing on these issues? I don’t know but I hope not. I can only state that in wrestling with and expressing my emotions to the world at large, I paint what I am compelled to paint.
