Portals To Presence [2022] - SOLD

36x36 mixed media on 1 5/8” cradled birch panel with whitewashed wood edges
signed and dated on the back - wax sealed and ready to hang

This large mixed media painting was built up using many layers of plaster, collage, and acrylic paint + glazes. The first layer of collage applied was comprised mainly of pages of old books inherited from friends and family - old textbooks, primers, how-to guides they once referred to, as well as maps of favorite places. In the final layers, I use scans of old letters and documents from loved ones, too valuable to destroy - these are transferred using acrylic medium, sometimes enlarged for emphasis. All ephemera has been transformed and distressed by colorful, bold marks and iridescent glazes until they feel dreamlike, ethereal, like the memories that they represent. Working in this way is meditative - focused on these cherished people, places and times past. The final, graphic masking layer of thick, textured black plaster zeroes in on surprising remnants of these memories, bringing bits forth to our awareness, bringing them into Presence.