This is a new painting that is called Vestige of Memory. It’s a modestly sized piece on paper, a 5″ by 19″ image on paper that frames out at 12″ by 26″. It’s part of my upcoming show, Facets, at the Principle Gallery.
I’ve always been interested in how our memory functions, how we organize and determine the importance of memories within our minds. How we determine what remains intact and seemingly vital to us and how we figure out what gets tucked away in some distant corner or simply flies away. Why do some innocuous moments remain vital in our memories while other more important ones seem to have no place there?
Is there a collective memory among us as a species, ingrained remembrances that give us our instinctual reactions? If so, do we add to it even now?
Those are just a few of the questions that come to mind when I see this piece. It’s a simple composition yet it says a lot with the little it possesses. Perhaps it’s the motion of the tree or the fleeting leaves. Maybe it’s the hints of color in the background sky or the texture there that hints at some unknown entity or knowledge that we can only see as chaos. Maybe it’s the simple red chair, signifying a matter of importance, something to be held close.
Or maybe it’s just a chair on a mound as the wind blows a tree.
It’s all a matter of perception…