Images help us understand ourselves and the place we occupy in the world.

 

The invention of the camera told us that images were not timeless, and perspective is not singular. The digital camera took away the physicality of an image, turning life to information, distorting an image's value. The internet is a digital reproduction of reality. The ubiquity of screens and instant connection of the internet has devalued our relationship with images. As we as people are more and more defined by our connection to the digital reality of the internet, we lose sight of what defines us and our worth in the physical reality.

 

#feltcutemightdeletelater, on Instagram, is an example of this disassociation between ourselves digitally and physically. Full of selfies, with varying levels of awareness of their place online, these easily ignored self-portraits are all a product of people searching for self-worth from the faceless vacuum that is the internet.

My recent series of paintings, taking its name from the tag brings these images back into reality thus redefining their worth. Painted alla prima, with satin impasto on a neon ground the work is tethered to reality. No longer erasable the image is defined by its existence, the time the painting took, the space the board occupies.

 

Nothing more, nothing less these paintings now exist.