My in-progress series titled RIFT draws from experiences surrounding the 2018 Kilauea East Rift Zone eruption on the big Island of Hawaii. The seeds for this project were planted shortly after my visit to observe the eruption, but like the volcanic process in many ways, it lay dormant for many years while huge shifts occurred underground. The experience and the shifts that it represents were so vital to my personal and creative evolution however, that it was always going to return to the surface.
Each painting in this series captures real events and stories that either I experienced personally or that were shared with me by locals. Playing with Destruction-Creation energy as a central theme, the title RIFT carries dual meanings of separation and opening. A rift divides. A rifts births.
As with previous work, the micro—or the quantum—always reflects the macro, and while the subject matter pulls directly from firsthand, anecdotal events, the awareness of how Destruction-Creation energy continues to ripple throughout the world at large is at the forefront of my mind.
THE MONSTER ORACLE began as spontaneous drawings and paintings of monsters in sketchbooks and blank pieces of paper in 2020 and 2021. After a handful of them appeared I began to see their potential as an oracle deck, but the words to accompany them did not start flowing until 2022. Since then, this project has occurred in fits and starts, as staying in this energy for too long isn't sustainable for me. Instead, they burst out almost on their own usually when there is a trigger in the outside world. I returned to them in 2024 and have been splitting much of my energy between the monster paintings, my artist's books series, and my RIFT series. I do not have a timeframe for when the deck will be completed, but I am currently about halfway through.
SUPPORT THE ARTS
Paintings from this series are not available for purchase at this time. If you'd like to support my practice, I sell a selection of small originals, books, photography, and limited edition reproductions (in rare cases) via my online shop.
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