Thesis writing...(hey it makes sense to me)

Painting for me is a constant cycling of layers of ideas and processes, extremes coexisting, the inner and the outer world to name of few. This current body of work is one segment in a continually ongoing exploration into the nature of identity fragmentation in this current time, utilizing and combining the physical and the digital self. The self-identity, which has never been purely stable, is now continually fragmented and multiplied due to the nature of our world in this digital age. There is indeed a sense of existential turmoil. Though my work currently I aim to dissect and represent this concept through painting and the cylindrical nature that my use of paint can inhabit. It is also a way for me to look at the psychology within myself while having it be a means towards a societal encompassment of ideas, to connect with universal themes in response to humanity. This is a two part piece, where as the first will deal with the physical aspects, the second will involve the digital.
In dealing with thoughts of identity fragmentation and the posthuman I utilize the format of self-portraiture. Though they are not literally self portraiture, they are in terms of obsession and focus on how I view my body in physical terms. It is defined to me in the form of flaws in which there is a constant attempt to perfect the human form and to recreate ourselves. This also coincides with preserving parts of the body as a method for recreation (such as cloning) and preserving as samples (forensics). It is the aftermath of attempted perfection which then turns into destructive and deconstructed fragments. I am also interested in plagues and diseases, and I feel these pieces carry out the nature of that concept as well, bringing something so elusive and yet such a physical representation of destruction and decay.
What began as an accident quickly turned into a full out process. I began to do a series of pours on top of glass from which I could pull off into a self made raw material. These pours consist of a base of polycrylic, which dried quickly, as well as other acrylic based materials, being mediums, gels, and latex paint. The translucency can be somewhat controlled through the proportions of what is used. The behavior of the paint, depending on numerous factors, could not be. It is an interesting state of viewing what happens depending on aspects such as the tilt of the glass, how the materials are layered and react with one another and so on. Interestingly the plastic of the material gave such organic and body like qualities to the fragments and inherently reanimated them. Embedded with in these are samples from my own body: hair, blood, skin, scabs and the like. Other items include rust, leather and bone fragments to name a few. The obsessive attempt at preserving the discarded remnants of the body allude to a physical ritual, the fragments within fragments, the cylindrical aspects of the body, and death. When these fragments are placed in their final configuration they mass together into figurative forms, pathetically draping and reacting to one another and yet still isolated in their own characters. The mass was needed in order to remove the idea of completely individualized sample and to create an overwhelming composition and a shroud like form. From far away it is quite attractive in color and jewel like in quality. However once up close the realization becomes of what they are made up of and what is encased inside.
The paintings are done in the opposite way, starting with a structure of the paint on the surface and working the fragments on top and within the painting. The image consists of a portrait which at first is done quite specifically as a portrait but then proceeds to lose its self in the fragments. Mouths gaping they are screaming, embedded inside a plague and inside themselves while the illusion is that they continually grow. They resemble statues of antiquity, decayed and broken from age, but made of flesh.
The continuation of this work will rely heavily on the digital to recreate these works. Image samples from photographs of the fragments will be used on 3d forms from various games to create other worlds and “people”, to which they will be rendered in the form of physical paint. This will provide a loop connecting the physical world and the digital online world.