The Ethers series is a contemplation on the passing of time and life experience - it looks for meaning beneath the surface of our perceived reality. The title Ethers refers to the upper atmosphere above the clouds. A place where the human world no longer exists - a place where the terrestrial meets the celestial.
In this work I use a deep black to form geometric shapes that serve as windows into the unknown. A peek behind the veil. Throughout time the unknown has shaped our collective mythologies as we have tried to understand what we aren't allowed to. These mysteries just out of reach is the place where these paintings reside.
The concentric circles of space are reminiscent of a tree’s age rings or ripples from a dropped stone in a still pond. These circles radiate outward from a shared point of origin - a starting point or birth. These circles move across amorphic sky scapes revealing a view into an endless void of space. With no starting or ending point the circle symbolizes the wholeness, balance and the infinite. To me these paintings are a stripped down crystalized vision of all the themes and ideas that I have navigated throughout all my work.
The Ethers series grew naturally without a preconceived idea. I love exploring new mediums to see what they may evoke. A couple years ago I became intrigiged with Flashe paint. It’s a synthetic paint made in France that dries super matte. I was looking for something that I could work with to achieve watercolor like results. Watercolor is such a beautiful medium in the way it interacts with the paper and especially the edges of two colors colliding. I wanted to emulate that with a material that I could bring to a canvas. As I explored I felt compelled to make these sky scapes though I wasn't sure why or where they were headed. I just felt the need to continue making them. Over time they continued to build and through carefully selected materials from years of experimenting it all coalesced into this series. I didn’t want to overcomplicate the compositions. My intention was to bring a clear, strong and meditative quality to the work. Welcome to Ethers my current ongoing series.