oil and matte gel medium on linen.
I was in New York City when the pandemic started. I remember the last time I took the subway to my apartment in Brooklyn before everything started shutting down. While most people were hoarding food and water, I was frantically gathering art supplies. I had almost everything I needed, but I was missing a crossbar by the time the hardware stores shut down. Fortunately, I found a beautiful piece of wood that was painted yellow and speckled with graffiti on the streets of Brooklyn.
The idea for the painting was rooted in my pre-pandemic struggles. But, as the pandemic progressed the painting became imbued with the growing anxieties of 2020. My work has always focused on combining self-portraiture with observed phenomena to create a narrative. I painted everything in my apartment: the light switches, outlets, crown molding, and dirty baseboards. To me, the light switch and outlet visually represent energy sources. The darkness represents exhaustion while simultaneously being an optimistic metaphorical gateway into a more positive post-pandemic life, with the figure caught somewhere between them.
After completing the work, I returned to Denver to be with my fiancé and left the painting in New York. Now a year later, I see the painting as a record of my experience that spring.
