Artist Statement | Bran Palmer

Absence reveals presence. Airy shapes rise like topographical peaks, divulging the tale of an unseen terrain winding just below the surface. My work is an exploration of the invisible made visible, where shapes form from air into the anatomy of symbols.

Folds represent kinetic streams, patterns of motion illustrate turbulence. Paint pools, sanded and glazed with cosmetic sponges, rotary tools, garden sprayers and narrow brushes. I coax opacity to play with translucency, hues to vibrate side by side, to circulate and move, to glow and darken. Tones sink into shapes on fabric, soak in and to spread out on reflective surfaces. Shape finds its own way in my work. Matter flows. Light reveals.

My paintings are the residue of me playing a gentle game with liquid light in motion. As Thomas Nail wrote in Theory of the Earth, these "patterns of nature are emergent features of a universe in motion."  They are treasure maps of what we can’t see, the architectural waves supporting all of us, an indication that we may not fully understand why, but we are present.