Knot Now

From the Artist: When we all went into lockdown, I had a lot more time at home and was able to devote more of myself to painting. Early in the pandemic, I found a skein of woolen yarn on my shelf. That intricate, flexible cluster of thick and thin strands became the subject of every painting since that day. During these tragic months, I’ve found comfort in painting the same subject over and over again. Tying and retying the strands in ways that interest me is one thing I’ve been able to control throughout this unprecedented time. Exploring the landscapes of wool is a safe adventure. Expressing the twists and turns in the ways I choose, and allowing myself the freedom to determine textures and colors, is cathartic. I’ve come to love painting oversized knots—creating a magnified, pronounced version of an everyday object makes it seem new. Forming large, sweeping curves using a thick brush on a big canvas is refreshing, and it’s the closest I’ve come to dancing in quite some time. There have been personal revelations and insights while brushing through the labyrinth of the lights and darks. I find relevance in the uniformity and disparity of the strands, and meaning in how they affect one another. There’s a dynamic among the threads, and my focus is on those relationships. Getting absorbed in the painting process during this stressful time has allowed me to unwind a bit—perhaps it’s been an unraveling of sorts.