Harmony

"Not for nothing one face, one character, one fact, makes much impression on [someone], and another none. This sculpture in the memory is not without preëstablished harmony. The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify of that particular ray. We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents. "

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance

As a neurodivergent person, my mind's eye isn't very clear to begin with. I compensate, I think, by plumbing the depths of my own imagination, riding the sweeping lines of thought until they diverge from each other into nuance, or new ideas entirely. I process experiences through a fleeting rush of color and gesture, like riding in a car and watching the world whisk by. I simply don't pay enough attention to what's in front of me to remember visual minutae on the first pass. An experience has to be especially potent for my mind to capture it in photographic detail. Memories are inherently fragile, after all; few people are able to imagine or remember every crisp detail of a moment in time. I've read before that a memory is only as clear as the last time one has visited it. My memories feel especially ephemeral as I've gotten older; all that's left is color most of the time.

As all of my artwork deals in questions of personal identity, I want these works to be portraits of memories, musings, and imaginings related to who we are as a sentient beings. Relying on color theory, I can capture the nebulousness of imagination, and using heavy-bodied acrylics applied with silicone carving tools, I depict the delicate precipitousness of a sprawling thought processes. I do not use black, so even the depths of dark colors are infused with nuance of hue. Layers upon layers of paint create a shimmering quality that illustrates eddies of detail suddenly clear before your eye is hustled on down the line, where it may rest elsewhere. Through this process I express the vibrant, high-contrast compositions of the unexpected harmony of emotionality, intellect, and whimsy to literally paint a picture that is at once fascinating and insightful. From this, this show takes its name: Harmony. Upon witnessing these works, I want to invite viewers to burrow into their own minds and get to know themselves as intellectual creatures: bright, bold, and mysterious.

Emerson said that the things that stand out to us were meant to be witnessed by us, specifically. We are inspired by what we are meant to. I believe that the insights gleaned from those "particular rays" are important ones. Therefore, each of us should take those insights seriously, and hold them up as a kernel of the light of genius that is inside each of us.