A Fourteen-Piece Body of Work
*Exhibited as a solo exhibition with artlessBastard Gallery in De Pere, Wisconsin, November through December 2018
Each piece in Undying Youth is done in colored pencil on wood panel
*Exhibited as a solo exhibition with artlessBastard Gallery in De Pere, Wisconsin, November through December 2018
Each piece in Undying Youth is done in colored pencil on wood panel
Conceptual Statement
Undying Youth. Crying for joy, hoping for more. Running head first into forever, out of it all. Throwing just about everything out the window to see what survives when it hits the ground. Spending the night dancing forever and forgetting that anything will ever come before or after. This is what we do to keep breathing and to hold on to life that feels like it might slip away if we go one second without living it.
Blind courage that has no right to be alive. Squeezed out by an era constricting us tightly. When it feels like it all just passes away we cry to hold on to it with a vengeance. Fueled by these insatiable dreams.
What is so complex about that misunderstood attitude? That disgruntled heart confused about every circumstance but running violently in any direction away. Somehow it's hope dashed but running unceasingly because suddenly there's nothing left to lose.
This youth battles against a world taking every last breath from it. Pushing back through after waking up to a dark displacement. Trying to find our way to a home that no longer exists, but still endlessly believing it’ll be there if only we look hard enough. Soaking up every moment no matter how carnivorous because of the constant reminder that tomorrow is no guarantee. It's baffled and spun out through every last part. And somehow it refuses to cease.
Maybe it looks like stars burning out and just getting wilder before they finally die. But it's actually the multi-dimensional magic that exists within the folds of that life. A spark of vigor that's undeniable. A charm somehow in the pain-staking honesty of being alive. In between the aggression and the jaggedness and the confusion is a zeitgeist of abandonment and beauty you can’t describe. That blind courage, running while bearing nothing but uncertainty, chasing nothing but grandeur. Still not knowing where anything will end up. But not letting that stop us.
We’re displaced by it all but we’re running back with attitude and heart. The confrontations we have with a suffocating world and the tension erupting against ourselves. It's the TV static that buzzes in the air at three in the morning. The look on your face lit up by the car light. Getting lost walking on our own streets and not understanding why. Having a stupid hope when nothing seems tangible. Believing in endlessness when trapped in the pit of the night.
Blind courage that has no right to be alive. Squeezed out by an era constricting us tightly. When it feels like it all just passes away we cry to hold on to it with a vengeance. Fueled by these insatiable dreams.
What is so complex about that misunderstood attitude? That disgruntled heart confused about every circumstance but running violently in any direction away. Somehow it's hope dashed but running unceasingly because suddenly there's nothing left to lose.
This youth battles against a world taking every last breath from it. Pushing back through after waking up to a dark displacement. Trying to find our way to a home that no longer exists, but still endlessly believing it’ll be there if only we look hard enough. Soaking up every moment no matter how carnivorous because of the constant reminder that tomorrow is no guarantee. It's baffled and spun out through every last part. And somehow it refuses to cease.
Maybe it looks like stars burning out and just getting wilder before they finally die. But it's actually the multi-dimensional magic that exists within the folds of that life. A spark of vigor that's undeniable. A charm somehow in the pain-staking honesty of being alive. In between the aggression and the jaggedness and the confusion is a zeitgeist of abandonment and beauty you can’t describe. That blind courage, running while bearing nothing but uncertainty, chasing nothing but grandeur. Still not knowing where anything will end up. But not letting that stop us.
We’re displaced by it all but we’re running back with attitude and heart. The confrontations we have with a suffocating world and the tension erupting against ourselves. It's the TV static that buzzes in the air at three in the morning. The look on your face lit up by the car light. Getting lost walking on our own streets and not understanding why. Having a stupid hope when nothing seems tangible. Believing in endlessness when trapped in the pit of the night.