1982, Original Oil Painting

Description

1982 is a large-scale original oil painting from the Unnatural series, and is now showing at Vin Rouge Wine Bar in Denver until October! If you’re in the area, you can sample an amazing, curated selection of wine (you can’t go wrong with anything on the menu) while seated at the bar with 1982 behind you.

What it’s made out of

I used Gamblin oil colors and mediums on linen canvas. This painting is built to last the test of time! Once dry, oil paintings are amazingly resilient.

How big is it?

It’s four foot wide and five feet tall. It won’t really fit over a couch unless you have really tall ceilings. It would look great in an entrance or anywhere you have about five feet of open space floor to ceiling.

What it’s about, and how it’s made

I leave my paintings open enough for viewers to bring their own narrative to each piece of my art. Whatever you see in this painting is what it’s about.

But if you want to know more about my own thoughts: I named this painting 1982 for some esoteric reasons that aren’t really reflected in the imagery. The rose pink in this painting is the same rose pink of a plastic headband I owned in 1982 when I was a second grader. We had just moved and I was at a new school in a second and third grade split classroom, where most kids were third graders. I had a series of headaches which eventually were attributed to the rose pink plastic headband and the enormous amount of hair it was trying to hold back.

The second reason I named it such is that it was the year I was first aware of the U.S.S.R., Communism, and the Cold War and thought about any of those things at all. The invasion and war in Ukraine made me recall my second grade-level fear of nuclear war with Russia in a way I hadn’t thought about in forty years. At times, current events and the news I listen to while painting affect my thoughts about a painting even though the subject matter and actual narrative of the painting is unrelated.

1982 uses my digital-first process of creating an image using Photoshop and several AI models in RunwayML. I used the same objects — some found on the internet, some from photos I’ve taken in Michigan and Colorado myself — but in a different perspective and orientation. I wanted to create a video game, first person perspective to previous paintings Melted Tree and The Doorway. I projected the digital sketch onto the canvas for the underpainting, then continued in a more traditional manner. 1982 is on display at Vin Rouge Wine Bar in Denver, CO until October 2022.

About the artist

After twenty years working in tech and tech-oriented positions in other industries, I decided it was time to paint again in 2019. I’ve been in several shows in Denver, including a solo show and a place at ArtPrize, which is the largest art contest in the U.S. with over a half-million attendees. You can read more about me and my work on my bio page or this article, which was released in 2022.

About the series

The Unnatural series has been displayed at the former SassaBird Fine Arts Gallery in Denver and was selected for ArtPrize, the largest art contest in the U.S. with a projected half-million attendees.