The Iridesence of Tears

1996

The title for this series of large-scale paintings comes from a poem by the American poet, Galway Kinnell, in which he speaks of "the iridescence of spent tears" and of our efforts throughout a lifetime to find happiness in the midst of the pain that is part of life. The paintings attempt to capture a similar admixture of beauty and peace amidst confusion and chaos. The palette of the paintings combines large areas of a somber black with bright, even brilliant, color. The tears we cry in our sadness are somehow beautiful, iridescent, even through their pain. Our lives are somehow, strangely and simultaneously, even in the smallest moment, both marvelously beautiful and full of pain.