"The Foreshadowing of the Inevitable; Conceptualized"

Semi Abstract Reflection

This is a wild painting. One of my favorites for sure. Alfi Santos claims it as his but has yet to pay up. It is stretched with super raw, heavy cotton duct and was quasi-primed by yours truly. It is stretched on two pieces of two by fours on the short sides and some select one by two pine on the long sides. I created this piece back in 2001, shortly after I got back from overseas while I was still in the Army. I was serving with the 5th Special Forces Group and had come back to Kentucky and started pushing out work like crazy.

This was one of those pieces. I was still using a lot of drugs, mainly just getting stoned and drinking. The occasion 8 ball found its way into my life back then and this painting was probably born during that time frame. Often during these times there would be 10 or more paintings strewn across the studio, which was my home at the time, all in some sort of stage of not being finished. When I got out of the army this was one of the few smaller pieces that survived that era (1997-2003).

Most paintings were either sold, given away or burned. I kept this piece and eventually around 2018 decided to finish it up. It came to completion rather nicely. It’s always difficult to get back into a painting after 10 or 15 years, your style changes and I have no idea what color combinations I was using that far back. This piece, as I said, finished very smoothly and I am very pleased with the results. Took about 20 years to get where it is now but it was worth it. The title appeared as I finished it.

I feel as if the title truly explains this painting even though the entire process was consequential and nothing whatsoever was intentionally painted nor written. So please explain to me why everything works so much in this piece and why its existence is even before your eyes at the moment. That’s what I love about my work, it’s all random but yet really works and makes sense when there is no way that it should. Can I get an Amen?