Considered to be one of the parents of modern painting, Caravaggio’s work work became popular for the tenebrism technique he used. It’s known for using shadow to emphasize lighter areas. Tenebroso in Italian means dark, gloomy, mysterious. This use of light is fascinating. It is sometimes called a ‘violent transition between light and dark’.
This contrast appeals to me. I remember seeing my first Caravaggio in a battered art history book. My favorite being Judith Beheading Holofernes. Poor Caravaggio. He has such a bad boy reputation, but look at his work!
So in my own practice I find myself trying to use shadows and darkness to make still life look vivid. Is there a place in contemporary art for tenebrism? Novalis said, ‘The artist belongs to his work, not the work to the artist.’ Caravaggio belongs to this work. The work is dark, mysterious, and violent (like the artist) but it’s also illuminatingly beautiful.
Remember Reflect Reform
In this work, I have been exploring phenomena of memory augmentation. I experimented with reflections and cinematic images by juxtaposing photographs, paint, wood, and mylar. The direction of the work includes painting intimate, reflective, observations of augmented memories.
I began by building a cabinet of curiosities as a way to form a tableau painting and experiment with different media. Inspired by the relief paintings by artist Sally Han, I built a model of a Victorian cabinet using tenets of Darwin's theory of evolution. I painted on a variety of surfaces including wood, photographs, and adding raw lumber to the pieces. In this process, I disassembled the cabinet to give autonomy to each piece. Although I diverted from the original idea of a final installation, there was an impulse to paint larger. Adding mylar was yet another way to accentuate reflection as a part of the critical dialogue with the work. The final result offers an opportunity to remember, reflect, and reform.
View more posts
