At the Edge of Things presents a fresh point of view regarding the conventions typically
associated with still life.
For centuries, still life paintings have portrayed items from the realm of the domestic....food, utensils, dishes, flowers and other elements that celebrate the table and the communal dining experience. Today, as technology impacts our lives more and more, few of us have the means or the desire to spend hours preparing and presenting a meal served on china dishes with silver place settings. Instead, we order online and our food arrives ready to be microwaved. During the Covid era, communal dining experiences were more likely to occur on a computer via Zoom than in person sitting around a table together. All of this begs the question, has the shelf life of the still life as we’ve known it reached its expiration date?
What exists at the edge of things? One element that can exist is the reality of the space around and between objects. More than ever, I am interested in how the color of empty space influences items being portrayed on a two-dimensional surface. Color in its quantity and specificity can affect how we perceive articles as either developed forms or simple shapes. In addition to space, multiple objects can exist at the edge of things such that their silhouettes might collide or meet up in unexpected ways, sometimes flattening space or other times just claiming attention. By translating what see around me into works that articulate this dynamic aspect of our visual culture, my goal is to push the boundaries of what a still life can be.
