Interior

Tension in an image can come from subject matter, or through formal elements. The use of a painting trope of a knife on an edge of a table pointed askew of the viewer turns a somewhat pleasant, straight on interior into something with more ominous, while the ghosted, unpainted sofa adds to a mystery to be solved.

In both paintings, I find skewing a pattern off of the implied plane opened up the potential for disorienting my expectations as a viewer. The elements don’t sit on the same plane, such as the books on a table, or picture hanging on a wall out of perspective with the wall.

I try to give the viewer many concepts to conceptually grab on to and explore or extrapolate. There is no intended meaning, though the scenes could be reflective of life out side of the paintings. They are not meant to be ‘quick reads’.

In these 2 paintings, the tension is created by the compositional and symbolic elements. I am also exploring scale and proximity in the images.  The distant opposing chairs in opposite corners of a room, with an oversized picture within the picture, painted in a completely different modality and color palette, seem to create an awkward moment.

The Interior with a table demanding the viewer’s attention with it’s awkward position in the room, and elements that are all on edge as if about to abandon their place. They are static elements, bursting with an energy to animate. The inset picture within the painting depicts a person half sitting, half standing on a desk, legs impossible.

In both paintings, I offer the viewer an exit to another room

Creating interior scenes from imagination, the spatial representation is my primary interest. In creating the space, I like to mix and match and confound the various approaches to perspective. That is mostly a drawing pursuit. In painting, I’m choosing color schemes, while leaving out an element for the viewer to finish. In the painting process, I find it interesting to switch up the method of paint application. The ‘how of painting’. Some areas are brushed in with syrupy thick paint, while others are scraped or scumbled or glazed or simply painted in.