While working on the concept for my 2018 series Shine A Light When It’s Gray Out, I was influenced, as most artists are, by the ever-shifting topography of society, political and moral. Over the last few years, most jarring to me have been events like mass shootings and violence in schools, and the fake news phenomenon. Egged on by social media—oddly, for many, now more important than reality, or natural disasters—it seems that only after a national tragedy do we, as a society, talk about helping each other, or embrace change. Über-consumed by the tedium of micromanaging, we slog through the day. The macro, meanwhile, is often too big a picture for us to wrap our collective head around, so individuals retreat—isolated in a virtual world. Like Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, we cave. We give up hope, sequestered safely under a rock.
In contrast, while Shine A Light When It’s Gray Out cocooned over the course of a year, I experienced three very positive forces. Each distinct and separate, metamorphosed my perspective on world events and my own life. And, as a result, this series fledged.
Shine A Light When It's Grey Out- Laughing In Tge Face Of Sorrow
This is one of the first pieces I painted for this series. Most of the pieces in this series started with a painted background and then after months of drying, the butterflies were added. Waiting for the piece to dry was the hardest part, there were dozens of wet canvases hanging everywhere for this series.
Shine A Light When it's Grey Out- Eventually You Will See My Ascendancy
This piece uses similar techniques with the exception of the painting style. Instead of a spatula I used a comb. I really wanted the texture in the background to stand out. The grooves are deep and luscious in this piece.
You'll Blow Us All Away, Someday, Someday
40"x60" (Diptych)
Oil and pigment board with diamond dust and embroidered butterflies
A tour de force that inspired Shine A Light When It’s Gray Out was the musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Through the auteur’s use of hip-hop, rap, and traditional musicals the triple-threat composer-lyricist-playwright flipped the switch on the Broadway script. At first viewing, my senses were bombarded. During multiple re-plays of the soundtrack— songs of love, loss, ambition, hope—I savored its nuanced truths. Themes stuck in my craw, specifically: how do you create a place for yourself in this world without sacrificing something? How do we deal with loss, through anger or love? What will we leave behind when we are gone? How do we not give up hope? The lyrics of “Wrote My Way Out” and “It’s Quiet Uptown” helped—mentally and emotionally—to impel my new series to coalesce. My title and several of the works that comprise my series were in many ways inspired by Miranda’s life force expressed in his storytelling.
Shine A Light When It's Grey Out- Where We Belong
Shine A Light When It's Grey Out- Hearts Are Never Broken
Shine A Light When It's Grey Out- Should I Bring Him Down
Instead of oil painting I used raw pigment to achieve the look on the brighter pieces. When painting with pigment, the paint dries in seconds, leaving little time to fix errors. However, the color when its finished is breathtaking. These are the brightest pieces that I have ever created.
Shine A Light When It's Grey Out- - Let The World Turn Without You Tonight
You create pigment paint by mixing a raw pigment powder with a binding medium. The result is a watery mix, you would then paint layers and layers of pigment to achieve the look. The base is created by using molding paste to create a distressed surface.
