All of these works have many layers of paint and other media embedded underneath the surface layer; two of them also have handwritten phrases, in pencil, underneath that top layer. The phrases in the pieces came to me first, while painting; the title and theme of the series jumped into my mind much later.
As I lived with the finished paintings, it was as if I were looking at a seismograph that recorded how intimate partners often communicate (or don't) with each other. A visual representation that documented the speech and emotional rhythms—the “movement”—of communication. I could see and “hear” in the paintings this communicating: the layers of conscious / unconscious meanings, thought patterns, presumptions, extreme emotions and misplaced opinions, sarcasm, faux-listening, excessive emphasis on the same point (each painting with text has only one phrase repeated over and over), and a glimmer of truth buried under it all.
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I'M SORRY, I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE SAYING
oil, acrylic, pencil, graphite on
cotton canvas with painted edges
Text Reads: I'm sorry, I have no idea what you're saying
30in x 30in x 3in
2009
SOLD
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KEEP TRYING
oil, acrylic, charcoal, pencil, metallic leaf on canvas with painted edges
30in x 20in x 3in
2009
to PURCHASE (link opens in new window)
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YOU WERE SAYING?
oil, acrylic, pencil, metallic leaf on canvas with painted edges
Text Reads: you were saying?
20in x 20in x 3in
2009
SOLD