About

Why do I paint?  Now, that’s an intriguing question. Let me pause for a moment and have a think.

I paint because I have to. It's an astonishing predicament! It's part playful, primate curiosity; part embodied mind on the hoof.  It’s the “what if?” of dwelling in the subjunctive. It’s not just “having a think” It's also “having a go.” And it’s risk-taking, conjecture and refutation—discombobulating, epistemic appetite—all the way down.  

I live and breathe color. My canvases are tactile and painterly. Their physicality is best appreciated up close. Close enough to see the brushstrokes and to spook the guard in a museum gallery. Viewers tend to linger because the paintings work on multiple levels. Inspired by Bosch and Goya—and my training as a zoologist—I mix high and low brow. I like the fantastical, and the grotesque. As each painting evolves, odd juxtapositions and cheeky hidden imagery emerge. I want viewers to get sucked in and ask themselves, “What on earth is going on here?” 

What am I trying to do? I taught philosophy to 17 year olds for more than 30 years. The course consisted entirely of generative questions. The Socratic, maieutic spirit remains to this day. and in these troubled times the urgency is heightened. Here is the rub—the in-your-face burning question that emerges every time I stand at the easel. How can I unpack, and somehow render, scientific frontiers and open-ended questions, about how we perceive, think and know, with squidgy blobs of colorful paint? Think about it for a moment. The finished painting does not reveal itself sequentially in time, like a narrative or musical composition. It's just a painting. It is what it is. In all its enticing, delicious all-at-once-ness! It's a brightly-hued, kaleidoscopic, tragicomical looking glass into what it means to be human! 

Married to artist, Mara Lea Brown‍ ‍

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