Beloved

These deep-spaced paintings were inspired by the philosophy that all beings are intrinsically important pieces of a larger whole, like how every jigsaw piece is necessary to create a full image. The deep skies, which represent the world beyond us, are paired with specific foreground imagery (birds, butterflies, etc.) which are depicted with more detail and specificity than their environments, suggesting that we relate to them as individuals. The deep and near are depicted together in overlapping layers that suggest that although we are individual actors playing out our lives, we are part of a larger system which we can only partially understand from our limited vantage points. My toenail does not know that it is part of me nor that the “I” it is part of likes sitcoms, existential philosophy, and dry wine. We, being so much more than the sum of our body parts, can realize that our understandings of our experiences are limited, and this series plays with the endless possibilities that offers.

My aesthetic visualization of some such possibilities as paintings were inspired by reading about quantum loop theory in the books of Carlo Rovelli, including “The Order of Time” and “Reality is Not What it Seems.” In the series multiple versions of the same sky or multiple different skies are depicted within one image, suggesting that multiple understandings of reality could be simultaneously valid.