This series of watercolor drawings was created while my partner was battling cancer. I sought to explore complicated emotions that you can feel with vivid clarity, but are not so easily expressed in words, such as the interconnections of relationships and community, the sense that you are changing in an unpredictable and uncontrollable way, and the duality of scrutinizing yourself without truly seeing vs observing the detail and shape of the world without judgement.
The only difference between the collections of suspended carbon that are living bodies and plumes of smoke is the scale of time.
Oil paintings are like living things in their organic components and how they grow bit by bit, mark by mark, developing into a complex whole. After the oils have fully oxidized, however, they possess a hardness and rigidity reminiscent of stone, with a life span far beyond the artist's. To me, these small (4" x 6") paintings on masonite are tiny monuments of thought and body.
