29 May 2025
Merlin James. So much to unpack, but for now I'm just noting that his work consistently strikes such a beautiful equilibrium between the personal/specific and the general/anonymous/genre, sits self-aware right in the middle of the paradox, always lightened by humor and weighted by history. It's helping me toward a fresh foundation to get going on this painting informed by the purple tree at Yena and Raina's new flat. Thinking of beginning with a dissolving container, (“Daumier’s famous willingness, even compulsion, to leave pictures unfinished”—James from a 2014 article he wrote for Burlington), but with the tree somehow achieving the centered focus and presence of an Adrian Morris...