January 12, 2023
This is what is currently sitting on my easel. The newest painting that I'll be chipping away at for the next few weeks.
I don't have a title for this just yet but for the time being I'll be calling it, The Handshake.
At the end of last year Wow x Wow was kind enough to invite me to participate in some of their 2023 online showcases. Each show has a title/theme that the artist is free to work from. This one particularly is for their show, Buried Connections that should drop March 2023. I don't have much time left!
This one started off in my head quite differently...
Originally I was going to paint a warrior of sorts paying tribute to a fallen comrade. There would be a helmet propped on a sword sticking into the ground with foliage starting to grow and wrap around it. The warrior standing above it would have placed a flower at the foot of the sword and is pouring alcohol over the grave as tribute.
The composition was okay...but I wasn't really satisfied. So I started noodling again.
This time around I couldn't get the image of an elaborate headstone altar combination out of my head. Not only that, but the ghost of the buried individual sitting atop his own headstone.
With that, I kept doodling. The narrative I had in my head was someone paying a visit to a friends grave and the ghost of the buried individual was pouring alcohol into the visiting friend's cup.
A friendship that transcends death still communing with one another over a shared drink.
I really thought I had the idea this time. So i started thinking about what background would be and how light would shine through the branches of the tree etc.
But then I started getting dissatisfied again. This felt so literal to the show title Buried Connections. I wanted and needed to do something a bit different.
So then came this idea...
The moment that sparks an event among friends/comrades that leads to the eventual burial of one of the individuals. This would be a narrative of betrayal in the midst of agreement.
Clearly there is some sort of handshake agreement going on – but there is collusion occurring in plain sight as well as intent to betray and back stab.
I definitely like this narrative much better. Much more multi-faceted in my opinion.
From there I messed with a few more doodles to help me figure out what the final details might look like.
I end up leaving room for more exploration when I'm actually painting and I'm already planning on how to repaint the bucket hat of the figure on the left.
More progress to come soon!