The Water is Warm, 2015

The Water is Warm, produced during the intensive for the 2017 cohort exhibition is a diptych, the first piece measures 22.5″ by 22.5″ and its mate 22.5″ by 7.5″. I consider this work to be a study in so far as it is an experiment.

New considerations with this work are, firstly, the substrate – this paper is thinner than the last and smoother – as I continue to source material that references more accurately the delicate nature of the subject matter contained within its frame. Next is the medium – having worked almost exclusively with oils, in switching to paper I was confronted with the issue of the work’s ability to remain archival. Perhaps more to the point, the linseed oil posed the problem of staining the paper in ongoing and unpredictable ways. This work is done in gouache and is the first time I have worked with that material. Also new are the format, the diptych hinting at the ruptures and layering inherent in memory and my resource material, relying not on the photograph but rooted instead on my own recollection of a dream.