Broken Vows

Broken Vows

A vow carries the weight of personal accountability. The breaking of a vow may shatter, destroy, indeed alter a life, the very nature of one's existence. It is the solemnity of the vow and the weight of responsibility which draws the image to rest on the moment of an altered state. The breaking of a vow brings a man beyond a point of no return, unable to undo or escape the consequences of his actions.

These paintings examine deception. The consequences following transgression are rendered in layered, intersecting planes. Figures shift through time and space as perspectives open up to reveal the half-hidden relationships. From dark recesses of the canvas, the echoes of characters reassert themselves. Mouths emerge from behind, hands grasp through space. Colors pattern the surface of the pictures keeping movement and relationships of figures in constant tension and unrest.

The anonymity of the traveler allows the enactment of another persona. With that new identity, obligations are shrugged off, hidden from view like a wedding band removed. The ship drifts between worlds where rules of the land fail to apply. Likewise the philanderer can walk into a hotel and attain a degree of anonymity which separates from the self. Rules are suspended, obligations evaporate.

The consequences, immediate or removed, surface in the tension created by the superimposed or underlying image. Interwoven or overlaid, the paintings make visible the damage and pain. The dark refuge from responsibility is spotlighted to show the deceived, the betrayed, the abandoned.