Silt

House paint, pigment, soft pastel, gouache on wood

When I look at this painting, I see layers and layers and layers of failure that eventually worked together successfully. One of the most essential dynamics of how I paint is that I experiment with a particular idea, the experiment fails, and then I paint over it as if dialoguing with its history and building upon previous layers of experimentation. It feels like a conversation with the paint. This painting was a back and forth with the medium that took a very long time before it finally gelled into a successful composition that lures me in with wonder to look closely at the layers of texture and color, and that is my strongest personal indicator of a completed painting.