As a young artist I went through a phase of fascination with the form of the triptych, but struggled to execute. Completing a three year long project before starting this one convinced me I could go back to being ambitious in my art again. After about six months of work, I completed all three of these 32 inch by 40 inch monsters.
When I start a project I generally have some sort of broad story in my head as to what it is about, but nothing fully baked. I like to discover it as I go along as I compensate for the mistakes I make along the way. It is probably my favorite part of painting, pivoting when I did something I didn’t intend. It’s that same mindset that lets me be both a perfectionist and accepting of small failures.
In the beginning, I was only intending on doing the red panels you see affixed to the bottom of each panel. I had purchased those paper boxes years ago and wanted to make either astations of the cross-style piece, or three triptych. After I finished the first one, the rest of the piece just kind of came together as I expanded the scope after I realized the source I was tapping into opened up some doors to the possibilities.
