About Me
I am a self-taught artist, that is to say, one who paints without benefit of art school instruction or degree. Given the modest measure of lurking talents I have inherited for visual communication, I am not embarrassed to admit that I work from the physical or “action” gesture; in other words, wherever my quivering hand takes the brush. I have been painting seriously for less than two years.
Each painting I complete is nothing but the conflicted wonderment of an angst-driven subconscious on the prowl for brutal honesty, and an uber consciousness urged to sniff out those personal heresies residing somewhere between a humble arrogance and an arrogant humility, raw energies harnassed to instruct the flow of imagination seeking itself. Rarely do I start with any specie of pre-conceived notion dictating what “I would like to imagine” but instead, I struggle against the common elements of mind and materials the status quo presents.
Gabriel Thy Click for larger image |
As a conflicted idealist, I find myself continually drawn to the manifested contradictions of global society, and use figurative but erratic line, rough texture and virilent color to speak of that battleground where art and politics beat each other up while few are they who seem the wiser.
Rising from among the first generation of computer graphic enthusiasts, I have inherited a need to probe into images I call “digital hybrids” which are organic drawings or partial paintings, even snippets of paintings I have photographed before banishing those rejected images with more paint, photographs which I then scan and further develop, but rarely in such a way as to indicate that they were computer generated. This contradiction, which often infuriates purists on all edges of the critical rag delights me, as I delve further into the question of the authentic and the counterfeit in the sphere of imagination.
I view history and comptemporary culture as a freewheelin’ exchange between truth and lie, honesty and cover-up. In an effort to expose the cliché as both prime soldier and stealth imposter of our times, my paintings are mere adverbs in a culture weary of language and camouflage. Thus, to remain true to my observations, the rough line of my hand and vibrant colors of my palette must both appall and appeal to a generation lost to worldliness yet unable to secure refuge in this accelerated age on the brink of [FILL IN BLANK].
