Paradise

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Paradise, oil and acrylic paint on canvas, 30 x 40 in., 2016.

This painting is part of my "Visions of Memory" series. With this series I wanted to visually express flashes of memory, as I believe they exist in our minds. These flashes of memory are like photographic snapshots mixed with dreams and emotions, which exist only momentarily before fading way or transforming into something else. In my mind they are like precious uncut gems, bright, colourful, reflective, and waiting to be transformed into something else. To represent this idea I took old family photographs and abstracted them in away that gave me the least amount of control over how it is abstracted. I did this by placing the photographs under a transparent glass bowl, which has a reflective, metallic design on it. The photographs remained visible, but the metallic designs reflected the colors and the light in the room in a way that is unpredictable. This creates the unique, colourful shadow shapes over top the image, which makes them appear very dreamlike. These shapes of color also expand out of the painting’s black boards like the way light emits out from a photo light box display. I used this process because I felt it best represented my belief that memory is something can be experienced but not controlled.