Constellations
I scraped this surface clean and wiped away everything that came before five, maybe six times. Everything I painted felt of little consequence. I deposited each of those paintings at the top of my canvas - a testament to emptiness.
Then I thought of my father when I was young, pointing his reckless finger towards the heavens.
I peered through his dusty old telescope earlier this winter at the moons of Jupiter - drifting at unimaginable speeds through an endless expanse.
What a fragile thing it is to be alive.
Since I first arrived at the surface for this painting I've been working on it on and off for the last 2 years. It has become a kind of meditation for me. As I add stars I ruminate on all the people that have drifted in and out of my life, as I have drifted in and out of theirs. Each star is a considered member of the greater whole and has been painted individually with intention. As a consequence, it is an obscured record of time and change, told to the ether.