background noise
when i painted this, it was my largest artwork to date. i was slowly expanding to larger scale and was playing around with shapes.
i loved the idea of not really using the entire space of the canvas and leaving things unfinished. even as i’m writing this, the painting is in front of me, in a very respectful center space of my apartment, showing me new angles everyday.
the color composition alone is captivating. i tend to mute my acrylics now, but there is a whole other layer of meaning when the colors are as vibrant as with ‘background noise’. especially considering the very concept of this piece.
the visual loudness goes in direct opposition to the idea of shutting out background noise. that was where my mind was when i painted this, and i was also considering how i should be the one making noise now. taking up space. i used crayons to write the word ‘noise’ along the neck of one of the figures. to me then, it was a depiction of having things bottled up that need to come out, need to be expressed. you know that feeling when you have something to say and you feel it physically in your throat?
another layer to this that i noticed only later is the relationship between the two figures. so close together yet not touching. the figure on the right is reaching out, holding eye contact, fully there. the face of figure on the left is turned away, and there’s a space on its chest that is hollow. i don’t know if i did that on purpose. makes me think of kilmt’s ‘the kiss’. also makes me think of the relationships that surrounded me at that time. but at the same time, i like to look at every person as another version of myself, and try to see what my relationship to someone tells me about myself. that sounds very narcissistic. i don’t mean it like that. just that everyone is a mirror. so maybe when there are two or more figures in an artwork, they are all the same person.
this painting means different things to me during different periods of my life and i’m not trying to explain it. i’m only offering meanings, as they are constantly shifting, and in the end, what you see is what is.