Keep Going
There was a before and after.
This is the first painting I made after the Christmas Eve of 2022, when I received a call late in the evening informing me that my brother Chris had used a handgun, bought for the purpose, to end his own life. At his memorial gathering, which was one of the most grounding and seminal experiences I’ve ever had the privilege to be present for, I pointed out that those of us gathered had been afforded a readymade major milestone that we could choose to make good and necessary use of, as an anchor point for starting or stopping something we’d long been intending to start or stop, such that we could look back later and say that what had made all the difference traced directly back to the decision to make something meaningful from this otherwise senseless tragedy. For my part, I turned my full attention to the practice of painting.
There is some continuity between the paintings I’ve done ever since and the work I was doing before, but there is something else as well. Stepping up to the edge, looking all the way down, and not being swallowed.