"you will not remember..."
"you will not remember..." expresses my captivation with images in a series of prints and paintings that together form the narrative of a fictional Rite of Passage. These images are drawn from imagination and rendered to have a sense of uncanny realism. They focus on an anonymous figure, perpetually hanging in the balance between order and entropy, as he navigates a threatening psychic mindscape into which he has been reincarnated.
The imagery in "you will not remember..." comes from a synthesis of unexplained memories and extrapolations on imagination. An image forms in my imagination and I apply my drawing abilities to render it, allowing the image to diverge and evolve as new ideas come to mind. As I add and subtract elements, I begin to form a narrative. Each picture is a tableau that serves to convey a lesson to the initiand. These lessons vary and may be concerned with the dangers of unintended consequences or the scope of human free will. The images transmit a body of knowledge that guides the initiand through the liminal space of the rite, enabling them to emerge in a new state of being, steeled against psychic entropy lest they repeat the cycle. The use of traditional oil painting techniques and print media creates a historical connection to other traditions of didactic image-making, such as Renaissance art; as well as with contemporary artists working with mythic subject matter, such as Alessandro Sicioldr, Rocco Normanno, and Trenton Doyle Hancock.
Drawing is my primary discipline. Giving form to these abstract modes of thinking and researching their meanings has been my own rite of passage. "you will not remember..." was drawn by hand from imagination and the journey has been informative and transformative. But the destination lies ever ahead, always over the horizon.