24x36 inches, acrylic on canvas. Wired and ready to hang.

About:

This was started in October 2018 at CoSM’s annual Halloween party, where I was invited to come live paint. I was super stoked to finally see CoSM and to see NY for the first time too.

I had a small sketch in my note book, a blank canvas, and like a show-off I set out to make something cool in only one short night. I thought it was going pretty well at first, I was painting with my hands, rocking some cool textures and really trying to ride the wave of not-a-care-in-the-world stuff that had worked so well in the past. Toward the end of the night my painting mana kind of petered out and the painting was pretty mediocre.

Back home I continued to work on it, trying to dial in on the original feel of the little sketch I  started with. I spent way too much time trying to save it. Finally I decided to kill it off completely and randomly started painting over it. Very quickly the painting was transformed into this abstract piece that I call “Collapsed Architecture” because it looks like a failed geometric experiment. As soon as I let go and relinquished control the piece evolved into something that had life. It felt really good to let go of that original image and let it be another kind of painting.

Whats interesting is that so much of the first painting shows through since I didn’t completely paint it out, and so it’s vital that it was there as a starting point. I love the random magic of art. The path is the destination. It all counts.