This exhibition reminded me of a lot of the things I was really inspired by back then. Some of the images contained dramatic contrast and beauty in what is artificial, dirty and/or run-down. I am really interested in and opposed to the idea that numinous or powerful beauty can only be seen in nature, and that the man-made taints this beauty and is generally ugly, weak or arrogant. However, man-made structures know they are doomed to eventually fail. They are fighting a battle with nature that they will eventually lose; they are on a noble mission and they will fight until their deaths. I feel that the city can have Sublime qualities, and that perspective can make the ugly beautiful. In the past I made a lot of paintings exploring this, and I felt most connected to a group of paintings in which I aimed to transform roadkill into something dramatic, striking and beautiful. The process was surprisingly natural as roadkill is as abstract in form as most real objects get.
