EtERNAL COLOR: Portrait Series

Where history and legend meet, faces from the Eternal Color Series ask us to consider the question of the meaning of a life well lived

This series of 12 larger-than-life paintings explores the lives of early historical figures and explores the question of “what is the most real.” A diversity of personalities are represented, and each one honors a different way of contributing to the world. Each person selected for this series made a contribution to the development of culture or was involved at an intersection of historical events. All of these figures, rightly or wrongly, were remembered by history as haven been given the title of “saint.” What is certain is that the work of several of them significantly shaped the world as we now know it.

"The tide of history crushes lives of individuals to minutiae, and it is rare that individuals from so many hundreds of years ago are remembered so vividly. They are strange among the artifacts of human history, of human memory. Something happened- and whatever happened- it made such a stir that it still has not been forgotten." -Melissa Carmon, Artist

A short video about the linguistic link that inspired the series

For each Painting, A Poem

Each painting is accompanied by a poem I wrote about the figure as well as a brief synopsis of their historical information.

The Paintings Inspire Musicians

Two sets of musicians have been inspired to compose work for or about this series. During a 2019 exhibition, the Inspire Duo, a group of award winning classical musicians created musical arrangements for each figure, and interpreted the art musically. Subsequently, Act So Big Forest also performed a show in the space which referenced the paintings and drew inspiration from them.

Below: Pictures from opening night at Bolt Gallery, 2019.

Each piece measures 60” x 35” and is painted with oil on panel.

The underpainting for each painting was made with acrylic, with oil painted on top. There are textural accents with R&F pigment stick, which is like oil paint, and contains more wax.

So that this work would be available for everyone who has loved it, I created a series of archival quality giclee prints. I personally oversaw the translation from painting to digital product. While no print can truly capture the colors of a painting, every effort has been made to translate the work from painting to paper. Printed with archival inks and matted with a double-deep museum cut mat, these prints also make excellent gifts.