Stark Unreality

These past few years have taught me a lesson. Most of us, at one time or another, are confronted with difficult or even devastating circumstances. Usually, they are unexpected and totally out of our control. They are dropped on us like an uninvited bomb. I have learned that healing is allowed to take place once you open yourself up to those devastating blows and allow TIME to gently cleanse your soul. Through the gift of time, listening, incubation, processing and creating became my best friends. My art became my salvation. Hence, my bold Stork Unreality series was born.

Nothing is ever purely black and white. As humans, we usually operate in a gray zone. We know this fact to be true. We have recently lived through a tumultuous, extenuating era. We have witnessed the culmination of the Black Lives Matter movement AND a worldwide pandemic with Covid-19. It was the perfect storm. But, with each battle we endure; we become stronger, more tenacious, more resilient, making us better, more empathetic allies.

When the pandemic blew up in 2020, I was supposed to be showing a newly painted Native American acrylic that was slated for New York City at the Salmagundi Club. The show was understandably cancelled. At the time, I, like the majority of the world, found myself in lockdown and isolation. As an artist, I was taken aback by the flood of heavy-ladened news, but I knew this was the time to make REAL, reactionary art. I dove head-first into these profound, abstract paintings. I knew I needed to speak from a visceral standpoint. Consequently, my Stork Unreality paintings feel more explosive than realistic renderings, reaching out to others on a sympathetic and empathetic level. I view them as visual news stories, summarizing the extreme, questionable changes we have all experienced and witnessed over the last several years.

My neutral toned, highly textural Abstract Expressionist paintings capture the sense of loss though aggressive slashes of paint, reminiscent of architectural and natural destruction – like a forest fire that has decimated an entire landscape. It has the feel of charred timber barely standing, balancing against one another as a crutch. However, the fact is, they still appear to be standing. Also, wrapped within each painting is a powerful sense of duality. What might seem like a contradictory force is perhaps complementary. The sense of reconstruction and new beginnings permeates throughout each given composition. There is promise within each painting. The essence of strength still remains. Whether black or white, straight or organic, smooth or textural – extreme polar-end opposites coexist. The world needs to learn this lesson, too.