Tomb of the Diver

2023-2025

My paintings occur at the rupture of the infinite horizon. The diver has emerged as a profound metaphorical vessel in my artistic practice—a liminal figure suspended between states of being, embodying the delicate moment of transformative potential. Originally inspired by "The Tomb of the Diver (Tomba del Tuffatore)" in present-day Campania, I have devoted the past two years to exploring this imagery in my work and developing my own interpretations of its significance. While honoring the artistic tradition established by notable predecessors who have explored the diver motif throughout art history, I infuse the subject with personal narratives of loss, and ephemeral impressions of spiritual communion.

My figurative oil paintings and charcoal drawings capture the fleeting instant where human form transcends the boundaries of known and unknown, corporeal and ethereal, serving as an ongoing investigation into the psychological and physical thresholds of what it means to exist as a being between two worlds. Figures transition from a place of heaviness and solidity to one of weightlessness and levity, striving to annihilate their forms through the process of painting. As a swimmer and artist, I am deeply drawn to the metaphorical richness of water as a dominion of subconscious exploration. Diving represents the critical suspended moment after committing to an action of great consequence and before arriving at its ultimate conclusion—a meditation on risk, the inevitable, and trust in the unseen.

Each piece seeks to capture bodies in motion that appear to have been replicated through time immemorial, yet remain utterly singular and present. The paintings themselves are highly layered and sought after, with the physical surfaces scraped, eroded, and demolished before settling upon a final composition. Raw expressionist gestures are contraposed with delicate line work, while brief descriptive notations of hands and feet, aquatic life, cliffs, or reflections on water provide a tether to the observable world. The charcoal drawings evolve organically, beginning as mercurial impressions of light and shadow before expanding in size through additional joined paper, as figures gradually emerge from the darkness. They are then are torn, reassembled, and sanded down many times before their final forms are achieved. The pentimento of these past iterations remains visible on the surface, a living history of the unachievable yet searching perfection of the hand. My goal through the continued expansion of this series is to allow the figurative elements of the paintings and drawings to continue to dissolve, exploring the notion of the figure as an embodiment of absence and eventual transcendence from the physical realm. In rendering visible these metaphysical ponderings, my work ultimately invites viewers to contemplate the paradox of consciousness as something that exists both in and outside of the body.

Paintings

Drawings

Photographs