Psalm 1: 1-3

Making this piece there was several things I wanted to do: First, I wanted to honor and meditate on this piece of scripture. Second, I wanted to stylistically circle back to a chunkier, darker style as part of this medieval show. Last, I wanted to make sure I captured a range of themes and images to balance the show when it opens July 11.

I think being deep into parenting has made me appreciate the seasonality of life. I enjoy parenting and my family so much, and it’s so different than what life was like in my twenties. It’s a different kind of richness than staying up late talking about philosophy in bars with a bunch of friends. I also think that meditating on scripture- a meditative life- is part of the vision for what the good life is all about. Suddenly moving this summer required a lot of processing and thought- having this painting to work on was helpful. So much was wrapped up for me in living in North Braddock, but it was a good choice for us to move. We only moved to Swissvale, so I’m only two miles or something from my old house, but it’s really different. I’ve had to process how my six years in North Braddock fit into my life narrative.

I really like the medieval stylistic changes I’ve been making- I’m not sure how long they will last- but I’m glad to have them for this show at least. I want to do more fusion if possible of my chunkier, grittier style with my medieval paper work. I think this painting is the kind of thematic fusion I’m looking for, if not stylistically the perfect integration of both approaches. Side note: I’m pretty proud of the hand painted calligraphy- it took me way more time than I thought it would.

I’ve thought about how to get fusion impressionism/medieval structure. I imagine that would take the structure of medieval paintings and then use differently approximated figures- I think this could be a way forward, it’s already part of my natural instinct as a painter that I could push out potentially.

The buildings are half destroyed/half in good condition. There is a season motif around the calligraphy. The tree is a serviceberry, indigenous to this part of Pennsylvania.