Golden Triad, 2022, oil on panel, 10.5″ x 14″.
My work is driven by three related aesthetics: the inherent abstraction within nature, simplified shapes, and light.
A painting can reach a viewer in different parts of their mind. One part responds to things we can name like “buildings,” or “trees,” or the narrative itself. Another part responds to aesthetics such as color, shape, or movement. This is the part of the mind I want to reach. I consider a painting most successful when the viewer is struck by these aesthetics before they can identify the actual subject.
Color harmony is also a core instinct for me. The landscape, with its atmosphere and colored light, is an ideal subject with which to pursue this interest. If I cannot make all the colors in the painting feel as if they are bound together through a unifying color of light, then I will not consider the painting entirely successful. Each of my paintings has a distinct color chord, which is meant to convey a particular color of light or time of day. When a viewer says that the painting “glows,” I consider it the highest compliment.
Port of Call in Red and Gold, oil on paper, 11 x 18″.
In my two current series, Azure and Asphalt and Rooftops, I bring my interest in abstraction and unified light to the urban landscape. These works explore the abstract patterns formed by reflected light on the streets and rooftops at sunset. These works strike a delicate balance between simplification and detail: I have to include enough visual cues to make it clear to the viewer that it is an urban landscape, but few enough that it doesn’t distract from my primary interest, which are the abstract patterns and the light.
South Pier in Pink and Blue, oil on canvas, 15 x 24″.
Mitchell Albala, Apparition, 2014, oil on canvas, 28 x 22.
In my 2014 “Acceptance” series I applied my contemporary aesthetic to subjects of historical significance. In Apparition a cathedral-like structure is silhouetted against a glowing fog. It is the collapsed façade of the World Trade Center. In Pika Don, a magnificent cloud rises against a cerulean background. It is the mushroom cloud over Hiroshima. By portraying these events with an outward beauty that belies their disturbing content, I set up a contradiction in the viewer’s mind that asks them to reconcile these two opposites.
“[Acceptance] is beauty to ease the horror, and horror to make the beauty unsettling.” – SeattleMe