13 April 2025
I think I'm going to spend a while making paintings of the things I see on the ground while walking around every day. I'm usually averse to that kind of declaration for fear that it will harden into rigidity, but I re-titled the aforementioned Uvula by calling it Bag on the ground in Camberwell, and something about that choice just clicked. I have a few paintings in this vein on the go right now, and I am enjoying the process of using humble, discarded objects as starting points for paintings that aren't beholden to observation but still maintain a place-specific character—it feels good to let paint expand these objects until their realities are stretched into discovery while keeping the title grounded in the neighborhoods I notice them in. I'm with Toby in that I don't want my work to simply clarify reality, and this feels like a way to walk that line between looking with care while fragmenting freely.
The ground under my feet also has rich potential in its relationship to the concept of the painting ground, which will be interesting to unpack as I get more acquainted with the language hiding behind this impulse. I also think there's something to the fact that in 2025 everyone on their phones is looking at the ground and yet not looking at it at all. Gazes are shifted downward but are only focused on a foregrounded screen. Might be a good time to try a rack focus and get my eyes trained on the background terrain they're used to blurring.