See and Hear the Creative Process:
Battling the Storm, 2021
24” x 36” x 2”
Acrylic on Canvas
Inspired By:
The People's Beach at Jacob Riis Park
and Lauren Lee
As I arrived to clean up Jacob Riis beach, large storm clouds rolled in from the west. The sun and clouds battled each other over the waves, and caught me in a whirlwind downpour before the light broke through, victorious. I wanted to capture that dichotomy, the uncertainty, and the rapidly changing textures of the beach that day.
I sheltered from the storm under a pavilion, waiting for the rain to pass, and thought of jazz vocalist Lauren Lee, who also found sanctuary at Jacob Riis. Nearly every day through the pandemic, Lauren would go for a run on the beach at dawn, finding serenity during that turbulent stretch of time. Rockaway provides that kind of peace and beauty to so many people.
Lauren’s most recent album, The Queen of Cups, is an exploration of self-awareness and self-acceptance that came to fruition during the height of the pandemic. It’s a journey that I understand both as a painter and a human, one that I struggled with over sixteen isolated months: shedding layers to find the authentic self and how to express those discoveries.
As we discussed her music and experiences, Lauren told me that improvisation is more than just throwing anything at a wall and seeing what sticks. It’s about learning a language. That conversation changed the way I approached the canvas; I wanted to return to the basics of composition and color palette, to recoil into the cocoon of self-discovery that stood out so prominently on The Queen of Cups. I wanted to be sure that I was communicating what I intended, because ultimately, that’s the goal of expressionist artwork: to distort reality in order to evoke an emotional response.
I sheltered from the storm under a pavilion, waiting for the rain to pass, and thought of jazz vocalist Lauren Lee, who also found sanctuary at Jacob Riis. Nearly every day through the pandemic, Lauren would go for a run on the beach at dawn, finding serenity during that turbulent stretch of time. Rockaway provides that kind of peace and beauty to so many people.
Lauren’s most recent album, The Queen of Cups, is an exploration of self-awareness and self-acceptance that came to fruition during the height of the pandemic. It’s a journey that I understand both as a painter and a human, one that I struggled with over sixteen isolated months: shedding layers to find the authentic self and how to express those discoveries.
As we discussed her music and experiences, Lauren told me that improvisation is more than just throwing anything at a wall and seeing what sticks. It’s about learning a language. That conversation changed the way I approached the canvas; I wanted to return to the basics of composition and color palette, to recoil into the cocoon of self-discovery that stood out so prominently on The Queen of Cups. I wanted to be sure that I was communicating what I intended, because ultimately, that’s the goal of expressionist artwork: to distort reality in order to evoke an emotional response.
To learn more about the featured music, check out: LaurenLeeJazz.com.