Here is my work in a nutshell.
I am just one person, but many people see me. Each person sees me differently. I am an infinite amount of people. Therefore, so are you. I can never know the you that someone else sees. I can never paint a comprehensive you.
When I paint myself I am sorting out how I feel about the versions of me existing in the world. I wonder what people see, and so I guess. I guess out loud through paint. Or I instruct and I try to reshape who I am. I try and tell the world something they might have never known about me.
When I paint someone else, I paint what I know about them. I paint you plus myself, because that is my truth about identity. If I paint you hollow, but with volume, it is not because I think you are empty. It is instead that I think you are full of things I may never know about you. I paint incompleteness because I live incompleteness. I can never know for sure what happens when I’m not around. The purest limitation is time. I can only be responsible for the time that I spend with you. It is impossible to know everything about any one person. So for me, it is unimportant and untruthful to paint a whole person. Though truth itself has many versions, many people see one action and from it come many interpretations. I just want to be honest. I want to be honest about you, and myself. I just want to be honest with myself. I just want to be honest with you.
Austin Power
17 years ago
Posts
