Richochet

“When there is a complete wipe-out , there is a renewal.”

This stands true for most of us who have been a part of an unprecedented year, where everything we knew, or thought we knew, has changed. In that regard, I feel blessed to have reignited my passion for art. I had the time and mind space to dwell deeply into something that always flared a passion in me. My ideas of saintliness and purity, infamy and atrocities, the irrational and the rebellion is what I wrestled with on my canvases.

There is a directness in my art that is not eluded by what people perceive of me. I’m not trying to be dramatic or anything, but I am purging ideas out of my system in ways I never imagined. I am at a place where I can say, “This is my time– I exalt in it, and delight in it. It is mine.”

My paintings have come to me. I have had to scratch them out, they come in pieces, fragments and showers. I put them together on a canvas and at the end I have something I am eternally grateful for in the moment. It tells me where I am and where I have come from.

I think it is important to make an effort to reach out to the people who understand your language and where you’re coming from . No matter how few, but surely the right ones. My Paintings are not for the masses. It is for the likeminded. I need understanding, acceptance and praise. I am not looking for anything else– anything else is a waste of time. When you face a canvas it is a crisis and this crisis can be interpreted by anyone with a little bit of imagination. In those moments of good or bad sincerity, what comes out from the heart more than the brain, is what defines purity.

People keep uneasy thoughts under their tongue, unpopular opinions, unconfessed pleasures, and frowned upon aspirations. To bare yourself unapologetically and own yourself, to be able to say, “This is Me”, is what I want to create. By bringing something out into the open through art gives people permission to discuss it. That’s the joy I am looking for. My art should nudge people.

As an artist you evolve and to let ego and prudence overrule you for more than a few moments is a mistake. These emotions dissolve with time. Artistic credibility for me is not in what the market place thinks of me. I can’t imagine anything the system can put me through that can be more intense than what I’ve been through already. It does not pose a threat that is more diabolical than anything all of us are not already involved in. I think it would be very incautious of me to declare myself a happy man. There are a lot of forces that become animated when someone makes that statement. It is easy to get creamed in seconds and so I shall refrain from that proclamation. However, I must confess I find this whole thing very workable.

I am not looking for anything more than being honest to my canvas for now. So that’s me shouting out to you.

Hope you hear a whisper or an echo in my paintings.