Dancing in the Dark Series

I am playing with fire, and drowning in swirling, dark waters at the same time. In this series I depict what has happened, what was survived, and what I feel we are trudging into. This series has emerged from my interest in painting light, darkness- abstract and real- Fire and Water. Water is the more abstract of the series, it flows from real to what may seem real (in the reflections) and in the unknown (the depths below). The Floods seem dangerous and disorienting as you wade through them, needing to move forward towards safety, but not knowing what awaits you within it. 

The Fires offer the only structure in the works, but those structures are broken down and left to interpretation, to recreation. In each fire piece, I leave Objects/Obstacles in the foreground, build a deeper mid ground, and create a more abstract dissipated background that falls apart at the flames, using both oil and spray paint. The fires are seductive, warm, and draw you in, and I use each piece to show scenes as if you are the one treading through a destroyed past and into an unknown future. 

This series is a cinematic view into snapshots of an uncertain future that I feel we are trudging into. Inspired by the cinema (with filmmakers such as Ozu, David Lynch, and Alfred Hitchcock) and my travels in Venice, where the canals are seductive and wondrous around every corner, I wanted to make the Fire and Water pieces to be both menacing and mesmerizing simultaneously. I’m Leaving each piece’s story open to interpretation – making the scenes suspenseful, intriguing and full of uncertainty. After the floods, it becomes a bit of the “fire next time” idea – lingering, impending danger. 

Here The city is destroyed, the way home is flooded and washed away, so where do you turn from here?