The spacing and color of Crimewave make it an interesting one to read. The eye is forced to contend with the positive/negative spaces and how to digest the markings. Am I looking at a flat field of pink marks or a structure that is beginning to collapse under its own weight? I started in the top left corner, moving in increments towards the middle, then bouncing back to the bottom left corner. I did the same from the top right, to the middle, then the bottom right. From there the painting organically evolved. I contemplated each mark, thinking about the space between each and its relationship with neighboring marks, as well as those in various locations. I wanted to make a painting that looked simple in execution but forced the eye to think about what and how to read the picture. To make decisions and judgements. To connect the dots in a personal way. Just as one would look to the night sky and try to make sense of it all.
The same can be said for Matisse’s painting Porte Fenêtre à Collioure. The painting has been a favorite of mine for many years. Matisse had a great touch. His paintings were complex investigations of time and space. Think also about The Piano Lesson and The Bathers by the River. I want to read the painting as a positive/negative space. Matisse pushes our gaze further inward toward a window, one that looks more like a door to a dark, heinous room or a portal to another place. The painting is a great example of leading the viewer to a place to think about and question what he or she is looking at. To make decisions and judgements.
–Brian Edmonds, 2016
Buddy of Work 