Reflections on 2022
The Dam Painting
I finished the dam painting in 2022. I often just ‘see’ a painting. A painting may incubate for years, there seems to be some divine timing at play. It is more of a knowing, an ‘other’ intangible sense that draws me to a particular painting. It seemed appropriate to be working on the dam painting during Covid, when all of life was dammed up. The wall sized painting had been gestating for over five years. The proportions of the dam are enormous compared to the minute human figures working to restore a dam. What drew me to the subject was the relentlessness of nature and the futility of men trying to control and change nature as they see fit regardless of outcomes.
The Venice Tempest
Another painting that I finished in 2022. This was a scene that I saw as I was leaving the Venice Biennale in 2019. I had always wondered about the nature of Shakespeare’s Tempest which I immediately understood as I experienced the impending storm traveling toward me at rapid speed. I had also been curious as to why the waves always had a certain chop to them in the Dutch Masters seascapes. They seemed to be unnatural as to how waves move in the open sea. As the waves built and churned against the sea wall of the Grand Canal I realized that the Dutch painters most likely studies the waves off the seawalls of their canals
This scene also reflects the growing threat to Venice due to global warming.