Roadtrip

Through referencing photographs taken from a moving car on a wet, snowy afternoon in late November, I am finding ways to express the blending of experiences, past and present, on the same surface. A film camera collects memories but a digital camera in movement does not capture the scenery in the same way. Digital photography creates blurs and random glitches and these accidents of technology, when juxtaposed with existing images of the past, can express time-consciousness. I work on a black ground inspired by roadside scenery of parked vehicles, modest farmhouses and fences. I leave void areas where the very dark parts of the photographs like trees, shadows and forest appear. In this manner, the scenery covers half the canvas horizontally, while a large portion of the painting is black. In the darkest areas, using simple contour lines, I paint children moving in rhythm on swings, historical figures from historical works of art or other elements from my thoughts that add or change the meaning of the landscapes. The contour lines represent memories playing out in real time, as they do in the mind.

Driving to nowhere in particular and observing the changing scenery makes me aware of my present. The moving car creates a moment that makes my mind wander and think about my inner and outer existence. Reflecting on the places I come from, I experience childhood memories that have a powerful effect on me where the present moment and the past blend together. As I paint this experience, I am concentrating on when the mind meanders aimlessly. At that point, reality crosses with the imaginary and enhances perception with recollections, opinions or apprehensions. These paintings cross the present moment, that is physically being there and the free rambling associations of thoughts.

back home

Road Trip: Back Home (2015)
1.73 x 2.32 m

back home

Road Trip: Going Home (2016)
1.73 x 2.32 m

back home

Road Trip: Mégantic (2016)
127 x 251 m

back home

Road Trip: Roadkill (2017)
1.47 x 2.51 m

truckstop

Road Trip: Truckstop (2018)
1.73 x 2.32 m

dead end

Road Trip: Dead End (2019)
1.73 x 2.32 m

untitled

sans titre (2014)
1.73 x 2.32 m

untitled

sans titre (2015)
0.61 x 0.91 m