2023
Oil and acrylic on canvas
66” x 12”

The desperate error
to bury sorrow
in a vacuum,
and leave it there.

The second of the four pieces in the ‘Poem’ series, representing the manifestation of grief on the physical body. Caught in a maelstrom, the body is battered, thrown about by volatile emotional states, and leaving one feeling broken; as if one has been wrung through.

This section of the show was a departure for me, in that I used two implements of art that I hadn’t touched since university (which was over a decade ago). I returned to oil paints and figure painting.

I liked oil paints, but preferred the quick drying time of acrylics. But I never enjoyed painting the human form back then. In school, I never got the hang of it. Truthfully, I just didn’t practice them enough. But 10-11 years of seeing other people doing wonderful figure works sparked something in me.

I figured that there was no better time to jump back into it than now. For a project this big and this personal, why not? I have some work to do, but I’m still pretty pleased with the result. It was a nice challenge.