For Those Who Came Back 2025
An abstract floral bouquet emerges from a black background, centering on three red blossoms and broad green leaves, enveloped by white, yellow, and orange contours. The layered acrylics, circular motion, and vertical drips create a vibrant, rhythmic surface. This sharp color contrast lends the work an energetic and dramatic presence, making it a striking centerpiece for residential or professional spaces. Executed in a combination of acrylic and enamel, the piece was painted in honor of the return of the living hostages abducted in October 2023.
Jasmine Ronel
As I work, lines, marks, and forms coalesce and congeal; the next touch will undoubtedly cover and conceal part of these developments, yet never entirely. In certain areas, the underlying layers remain active, breathing and effervescing. The palpable materiality pushing from beneath exerts pressure, as the underpainting - or figures and fragments of imagery - persists within another stratum. The distinctions between the surfaces are technical, material, and conceptual. Frequently, the initial layers are constructed from 'easily digestible' materials - predominantly plastic-based - which slightly soil the canvas and establish an initial point of reference. Subsequently, following the drying process, the next layer rectifies (or destroys), engaging with areas through thought and the mind. At almost every stage, the painting 'proposes' a new point of departure: there is an observation of and response to the composition, and to the overarching concept of where things are heading. At times, the subject is negated; at others, it manages to 'hold its ground' and survives until the end. The materials in the later layers are already 'heavy,' imbued with self-importance and scent. These are far less forgiving, demanding their place upon the canvas. At this stage, the workflow is governed by the chemistry of the mediums and the internal flow pent up within them, which takes an independent and welcome direction. The concluding layer appears 'light and flat,' though opaque in most instances. Textures and directions may pass through it, but materiality and color cannot. Instead, these break through the 'wounds' - those ruptures that expose the convergence of flesh and skin within the painterly body. The conclusions derived from one work do not necessarily apply to the next. The subsequent piece often rebels against those very solutions, offering a different possibility that is seemingly antithetical to its predecessor. I find it difficult to place trust in a closed stylistic or painterly stance (be it a signature hand, subject, or language). For me, the act of painting is an adventurous and surprising journey that constructs and dismantles states, touching upon and crossing painterly territories that were once autonomous.
As I work, lines, marks, and forms coalesce and congeal; the next touch will undoubtedly cover and conceal part of these developments, yet never entirely. In certain areas, the underlying layers remain active, breathing and effervescing. The palpable materiality pushing from beneath exerts pressure, as the underpainting - or figures and fragments of imagery - persists within another stratum. The distinctions between the surfaces are technical, material, and conceptual. Frequently, the initial layers are constructed from 'easily digestible' materials - predominantly plastic-based - which slightly soil the canvas and establish an initial point of reference. Subsequently, following the drying process, the next layer rectifies (or destroys), engaging with areas through thought and the mind. At almost every stage, the painting 'proposes' a new point of departure: there is an observation of and response to the composition, and to the overarching concept of where things are heading. At times, the subject is negated; at others, it manages to 'hold its ground' and survives until the end. The materials in the later layers are already 'heavy,' imbued with self-importance and scent. These are far less forgiving, demanding their place upon the canvas. At this stage, the workflow is governed by the chemistry of the mediums and the internal flow pent up within them, which takes an independent and welcome direction. The concluding layer appears 'light and flat,' though opaque in most instances. Textures and directions may pass through it, but materiality and color cannot. Instead, these break through the 'wounds' - those ruptures that expose the convergence of flesh and skin within the painterly body. The conclusions derived from one work do not necessarily apply to the next. The subsequent piece often rebels against those very solutions, offering a different possibility that is seemingly antithetical to its predecessor. I find it difficult to place trust in a closed stylistic or painterly stance (be it a signature hand, subject, or language). For me, the act of painting is an adventurous and surprising journey that constructs and dismantles states, touching upon and crossing painterly territories that were once autonomous.
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