¡Fútbol!

About this work:

Imagine the swelling sea in an electric storm—fútbol/soccer fans in a packed stadium at night, their thunderous roars in the moments leading up to kickoff, their focus on one player on the field, the tension in the crowd increasing exponentially in contrast to the calm confidence of an expert, the distortion of space and time as she moves her foot ever closer to the ball—The Creation of Adam—a growing light, sparks branching, growing brighter—then the explosion—the big bang, a brilliant flash, lightning!—in the moment when the player’s foot connects with the ball, sending it soaring upwards, impossibly high, rising ever higher. As it reaches the peak of its arc before it rushes back to earth, recalled by the full gravitational power of a planet, it slows in time and time slows with it. In that frozen moment one man’s voice in the crowd is fully known only to himself, is abstracted in the ears and minds of those around him, and his energy is the energy that moves the sea.

This work has that same sense of individuality and heroic athleticism: in the strong diagonal lines in the form of the shaped panel, leading the eye upwards; in the physical weight of it and in the way that it locks itself onto the wall with a satisfying click of precision; in the challenge of constructing it and the process of painting, which requires my full concentration and a harmony between my body and my mind—as any athlete can attest of their sport. In composition, the diagonal lines, implicit in this work’s form and composition, are in conversation with the overall form and speak of energy, movement, and action. The yellow border competes with the defined planes of the face and sides of the work, while defining a new “face” for the work in virtual space, in the mind, as an illusion. While the areas that on first glance may appear primary blue, change to a deep ultramarine, to violet, even a red-violet, speaking to the Doppler effect, speaking to speed and time, based on both the viewer’s proximity to the work and the light moving through the space in which it is displayed.