This Painting is Very Hard to Photograph

I should probably get a better camera, but there is some kind of property of this painting that slightly blurs in every picture I take no matter what the lighting situation is.

While taking pictures of Josh for a portrait, he adopted a slightly concerned, slightly wide-eyed far away look and murmured “My gosh, look at that ship capsizing over there.” Typical to Josh’s nature, it turned out to be the best picture I took so I decided to run with it. I like the imaginary narrative it created as well as the sense of a slowly impending disaster that a lot of us are feeling lately in real life.

A Pretty Good Mouth

I made these studies back when we lived in our old one bedroom apartment where I worked out of a tiny corner of the kitchen. Space was super tight and I knew I wanted to incorporate these ideas into a large painting, and so I had to put the idea on the backburner and do smaller projects instead. It’s really challenging to work where you live, especially when you have two small boys that love to get into everything and “help” draw over your drawings and paintings. I love their creativity, but RIP some of my work.

Self as Fish Study, oil on paper, 2019.

I was so excited to move to our new house and make the garage into studio space. I am slowly circling around these motifs and reimagining what I want to do with them now that I have the space and materials. The main idea in these is celebrating an exuberant grotesqueness, which I love because of the subsequent feeling of mental freedom.

Self as Fish Study, oil on paper, 14x17”, 2019.

These studies are particular favorites of mine, and I go back to them often when I am feeling insecure or vulnerable about my own work. They help me remember what I like about my work, and guide me back onto a productive path.