Dalliance

 

2015-2019

 

Every day we see thousands of pictures, we judge thousands of things, we connect. But, in our digital age, are we closer to understanding ourselves and the world we live in?

 

A dalliance is a brief, casual romantic relationship. I use this idea to talk about moments that are going by quicker and quicker. Things like Instagram are unstable, or at best like jello, so I wondered if painting itself could offer stability.

 

I turned clouds (some other images) I found on social media that other people posted into pixels, and painted a fragmented landscape or image  with fictional and (I hope) attractive color. I was trying to use the internet against itself. You can see a cloud, but you can’t touch it, it looks solid, you often name it or find familiar shapes, you spend time with them, but clouds are also now places where we store our digital lives.

 

In my attempts to make the internet real, I keep realizing all we have is the attempt. It will fail. We will reflect, ask new questions, and keep trying to figure it out. That is where the magic is. Even when we know we can’t touch the clouds, we still keep reaching.