My oil and acrylic paintings visualize mental experiences that are too terrifying, grand, or sublime to fathom so that we may get closer to understanding them. I portray my encounters with internalized oppression, self-hatred, and anxiety to give myself and others a feeling of control over these monsters. I imagine how the reality tearing omnipotence of the Abrahamic God would appear to us. I try to taste the unmatched, every-lasting happiness of the great Buddhist masters. In mapping out these extremities of our psychology, I illustrate a sometimes daunting, other times awe-inspiring psychic universe. Layers and glazes of intense colors portray the emotional intensity and spatial depth of this realm. The spatial depth of this world is not to be taken literally, but to point to the vast array and diversity of psychological experiences. Expressionist brush strokes capture the ceaseless energy of the brain. Chromatic grids evoke the all-pervasive vastness of the mind. The process behind painting this non-representational realm is both methodical and improvisational. I come into each painting with a specific emotional experience in mind. Before paint touches the canvas, I consider what colors would best evoke that experience, and how the general flow of the brushstrokes can enhance the effect. These paintings are typically made large in order to invoke how emotions can seem overbearing. This psychic world often emerges from behind the physical world, rendered naturalistically in oils, and not just from behind or within individual people. This is to signify how the emotions, perceptions, and thoughts of all beings exist not separately, but within a cosmic, interconnected field of mental activity.

For pricing and purchasing inquiries, feel free to email gogrimmonds@gmail.com.