Artist Statement | Bran Palmer

My paintings are the residue of me playing a gentle game with color.

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I apply paint with cosmetic sponges, rotary tools, garden sprayers, narrow brushes, coaxing opacity to play with translucency, hues to vibrate side by side, to circulate and move, to glow and darken, to settle into shapes on fabric, to soak into paper and to stand up on reflective metallic surfaces. I build color and details slowly, layering complete paintings, adding fabric for dimension, then subtracting paint, carving away to reveal surfaces.

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As a caregiver for a disabled parent, I know what it is to be tired, to lose patience with care systems that regularly fail, to sink into frustration. I’m impacted by the contrasts of callousness and caring, apathy and empathy that result in the repeated rubble-making and rebuilding of our world.

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I know what happens when we stop playing games with each other, when we stop caring for each other, and when we stop making time for each other. Our hands which are routinely busy with the mundane enjoyment of washing dishes, chopping cucumbers or combing hair start doing things like destruction, damage or detonation, or sometimes they just become still.

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I also know what happens when we take a minute to play, to find a place where we can meet and agree to spend a little time with each other in the joy of the game.

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