From Concept to Product
Many of my paintings have no concrete genesis or starting point. Whether at a lunch, on a call or sitting at my desk, I often find myself doodling aimlessly. The natural reaction is to think that I must be spacing out , but the irony is that I am actually retaining everything that is going on around me. The part I am spacing out on is the doodle that I am laying down on the piece of paper in front of me. Without realizing it, it becomes a complete stream of consciousness and a gut reaction of what my mind imagines to be a harmonious image. Below are some images of envelopes that I have taken the liberty of littering with those streams of consciousness.
From these "markings" I generate many of my concepts. Sometimes the inspiration is immediate, other times it comes days later, but the process is always the same. I see something specific amidst the chaos on the paper and I then extrapolate it into its own individual idea or image. There are some occasions in which I’ll add more to that parceled section or there are instances in which I like the whole chaos as it is and determine that its full story needs to be told. Below are some examples of those.
Star Gazer (Galileo), 2018
Acrylic on canvas; 12" x 9"
Stick Figure No. 2, 2016
Watercolor on paper; 12" x 9"
I don’t always generate my ideas this way. I was born and raised in New York City, which is still my home today. It's a place where every day, without fail, I spot something new. From unforeseen outbursts on the street, to a stone carving on the top of a building near my home, that I could have sworn never used to be there. The spontaneity is limitless and it often triggers new thoughts and ideas in myself. Other times, all it takes is looking up from your phone only to find everyone else being consumed by their screens as well. This is what inspired me to generate an image using Powerpoint, which I then translated onto a large canvas.
...to our own devices..., 2018
Acrylic on canvas; 56" x 48"