2023
Oil and acrylic on canvas
24” x 24”

The fifth of the ten pieces in the ’Manifest’ series. Grief feels like things are being wiped away. And sometimes your own physical being gets involved.

So, while the idea for “Growth” had been kicking around in my head since university, this here was the first piece I actually visualized for the show. I hadn’t even come up with a title for the show yet. I was lying in bed about four in the morning – wide awake, my mind trying to wrap itself around the gauntlet the Station Gallery curator Olex Wlasenko had thrown at me. I had all three rooms in the gallery to fill. With all new original work. He wanted to see something new and fresh.

This image popped in my head and I remember thinking, “Damn, that would hurt”. My trail of thought eventually lead to how much grief hurts, and that we never talk too much about how the hurt continues. And how we need to say that quiet part out loud…

I had written that phrase in my notes on my phone ages before. I got out of bed and started writing down any and all ideas that popped in my head. By noon that day, I knew what I was gonna do with each room, and I had the title for the show. ‘The Quiet Part, Out Loud’. Some of those plans changed over time, of course. But this is the painting I visualized which started the whole thing.