purple blue safety orange

This painting is part of my Deep Fake series, which are based on principles of color theory to suggest the illusion of depth and overlap. The compositions use solid, opaque fields of color in proximity to imply the illusion of colors overlapping.

The title Deep Fake references the notion of "fake depth", named after the term Deepfakes (a portmanteau of "deep learning" and "fake") which refers to synthetic media in which a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else's likeness.

I use a combination of Gouache (acrylic, archival) and Mineral paint (archival) for their ultra-matte velvety surface quality which absorbs rather than reflects light.

The process of making these paintings is methodical and formulaic, and involves mixing each hue to just the right value so that all shapes in the composition move forward and backwards rhythmically. Like scratching away the silver wax on a lottery ticket to see the worth of what emerges, I never know if a painting works until the last color is filled in. Then I make adjustments until it sings. Singing means they vibrate between multiple forms / relationships / planes endlessly and non-hierarchically. They at once give the viewer something to chase/navigate and somewhere to rest.

A peacock’s feather, an abalone shell, a soap bubble— these surfaces demonstrate the relative-to-light illusion that is color. When a form is unstable, embedded in the experience of seeing it is the sense of chasing it. In these paintings I’m searching for a vibration that offers both rest and revelation.