Captain Ahab

Concept

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum...philosophy of embracing the flaws and imperfections by highlighting them. A metaphor for human existence and healing; damage, cracks, trauma, and breakage are aspects of human life.

When I am painting, Japanese Kintsugi philosophy is heavily used as well as neuroline art theories. I prefer to paint through emotions and most times I am working through a particular emotion, situation, or reflecting on something while I paint. Once the paintings are dry, I use these philosophies and theories to transform whatever experience or emotion I have physically painted. I achieve this transformation by physically ripping them up. I then go back through gluing all of the ripped edges back together and finish by gold foiling these fusions which completes the transformation. In a sense each painting represents the death or healing of something, a transformation, and the rebirth of something new. My paintings are typically abstract and I know what each one stems from for me but I like to leave them up to interpretation for others. That includes orientation of the paintings as well. My hope would be that my paintings act somewhat as tools for reflection and meditation for others to explore their emotions and themselves.