E. Thurston Belmer
Washington University in St. Louis
I am. I am. I am.
Oil on canvas
102" x 60"
Paint resonates with what it means to be human. Through layering paint one rips through an old skin, and appoints new existence: as beings and governors we are never still. More labored than new media work, situations in paint become multi-faceted by an intellectual and physical layering. Each layer then is digging, rather than building, relentlessly hurling itself toward a perception of true understanding: ripping the ligaments of facelessness, and bruising the flesh of our constructed selves. Paint is as destructive as it is additive, as harmful as it is instrumental, yet truthful by nature.