Galicia

The painting was executed following a first time trip to Galicia, a trip that included a visit to the artists grandmother’s childhood home and a first time reunion with newly found family. The painting depicts the characteristic rock formation of the Northwestern European coast, the vastness of the land and the ocean. The painting appears fractured between geometric cuts, revealing a hint of a backdrop, an additional layer, behind the one that is shown. Represents the layers of history upon which a nation and a family are built and the fracturing off of the unit into individuals as you zoom in, while maintaining the integrity of the piece. The image of how we initially view a family as a homogeneous unit becomes an image composed of many entirely different parts. As we gain more knowledge over time, those pieces shift apart and back again and so on. There is a calm and stability arrived at in this work in spite of the reminder of the shifts that take place, as Leonard Cohen sang about, cracks through which the light comes in. Again, the theme of the boat on the water, touching on the question of permanence.
The piece belongs to a series of paintings dealing with emigration and a return to the country one left behind. Theme of fracture and unity happening at once.