The symbols happen spontaneously but are edited with consideration.

Many of the marks I make even in the form of numbers, letters, or words happen spontaneously. There is often an impulsive urge as if the marks are aching to be made. Sometimes after I make the marks they seem wrong or too obvious so I erase them. The erasure then becomes part of an editing process.

 

 

 

The Nightingale 2022

48″x60″ Oil, pigment stick, spray paint on canvas.

This one is difficult. The words come like an impulse. I let them out as they come and then if they don’t feel right I wipe them. In this case I couldn’t stop the urge to use the word clandestine. I don’t want to give away all of my poetry or symbolizm but I also don’t want this to be misunderstood. I guess I’ll sit with it a while. (this was what I wrote after finishing this painting).

 

Queen Of Hearts 2022

48″x60″ Oil, pigment stick, spray paint on canvas.

Many of the words or numbers may have no specific meaning to me at the moment I make them as marks. There is a confidence that the messages interlaced in the marks are meant for someone and when that person or people encounter the work, the meaning will be clear. It took great restraint for me to leave this painting alone and not try to “resolve” it.

 

Shapeshifter 2022

48″x60″ Oil, pigment stick, spray paint on canvas.

Jump on my instagram feed and see the reel I posted today of me making this painting. @hackenwerth

What was kept in the shadows before had risen to the surface. Often what we react to in others is also in ourselves, and possibly only in ourselves. Our own paranoid delusions pointed outward.