Medium:
acrylic, oil pastels, resin

Dimensions:
30" x 40" x 1.4"

Year Completed:
2025

Description:
This work, evocatively titled "Electric Rhythm," is a striking exploration of chromatic vibration, formal tension, and layered texture, executed in a style that straddles the line between Abstract Expressionism and Color Field painting.

Formal Analysis and Composition:

The composition is structured around a strong vertical axis, utilizing a sequence of ten parallel, undulating, serpentine bands. This rhythmic motif creates a powerful sense of internal momentum and flux. The contrasting white lines bordering each wave enhance the figure-ground separation, giving the impression that the color columns are distinct entities pushing and pulling against one another. The bold, black frame intensifies the internal drama, containing the explosive energy within the canvas boundary.

Color Theory and Palette:

The palette is a high-key, highly saturated chromatic spectrum, employing primary, secondary, and tertiary hues—from cobalt and emerald to cadmium yellow and magenta. The juxtaposition of complementary colors (like the blue against the orange) within the sequence amplifies the optical vibration and the painting's overall intensity. The use of shimmering earth tones, like brown and gold, provides brief moments of visual anchoring amidst the otherwise heightened, almost synthetic brightness.

Texture and Technique:

The piece operates on two distinct textural and gestural planes. The underlayer features a relatively smooth application of paint, emphasizing the field of color. The upper layer, however, introduces a dramatic, autographic mark-making. This layer of dense, frenetic, blue-black scribbling functions as a complex pentimento or a veil. This chaotic, raw gesture—a nod to the spontaneity of Abstract Expressionism—creates a compelling dialogue with the structured, systematic geometry of the color bands beneath. The conflict between the system (the waves) and the synthesis (the scribbles) is the work's central formal tension.

Interpretation:

"Electric Rhythm" can be interpreted as a visualization of energy and noise. The vibrant, systematic bands suggest an underlying order or beat—the 'Rhythm.' The superposed scribbles represent a layer of constant, unfiltered activity or 'static'—the 'Electric.' The resulting visual noise is not discordant but exhilarating, capturing the modern experience of intense stimulation and underlying structure existing simultaneously. It is a triumphant statement on the power of color to evoke kinetic and sensory experience.