Apocalypse: Now and Then

Since the 1st century of the Common Era Christians have predicted the end of world or judgment day, most often in there own lifetime. There have been varying dates; the 1st millennium was widely believed to be the end of the world by European Christians. More recently preacher Harold Camping predicted the 21st of May 2011, and next the 21st of October 2011 as the end of days. While this is common to all religions, Christianity has a rich history in the fine arts showing the horrors of this event. I am particularly interested in the work of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, artist such as Hieronymus Bosch, Hans Menling and Rogier van der Weyden have produced incredibly imaginative and horrific painting of the Last Judgment. My work and this show are inspired by these paintings.

The power of abstraction to evoke visceral responses has always amazed me. Whether viewing the works of the abstract expressionist or the works of the Renascence I have been struck by how they both possess great psychic power. Though these styles seem diametrically apposed they both express basic human emotions that unite us through common experience of fear, death and loss, a sense that there is something bigger than we are.

 I am interested in dualities and the apparent contrast of these divergent styles. My work comes from the desire to make paintings based on two seemingly irreconcilable systems. One is the grid, whose structure expresses the ordering drive of humanity. The other is the use of serendipitous gestural marks to express our undying connection to nature. This duality exists in man’s relationship to science and spirituality.

Our desire to understand the incomprehensible is part of the human condition. Our preoccupation with death and the end of the world is part of our need to explain the unexplainable. I am interested in the relationship between what we can do and what we can only dream of. Christian imagery was once as understandable to the common viewer as fast food logos are today. I believe that we as a culture feel as if something is missing from our lives. We search, yet it is always out of reach. How do we fill the god shaped hole inside of us? Or was god never even there?  Can we place order over all this chaos? These are the same questions humanity has always struggled with. While I do not expect my paintings to be able answer these questions I do believe that the asking is what they are about.