ABSTRACT REALISM

Abstract Realism is perhaps one of the most difficult projects to explain that I’ve been interested in pursuing as form of finding beauty from the most unexpected things. Since the start of 2023, I’ve been deeply fascinated with things that challenge how we view reality. Moreover, I find it quite amazing how humans can make connections and interpret things that are often unrecognizable and distinct from the natural world. For me, there’s a strange magic that emanates from the attempt to categorize and discern whether something we are viewing is actually real. We wonder if our mind is being tricked and we wonder if the image is based on something even though it cannot be explained.

Think about it this way, abstract realism is sort of like a confusing mind game, but a truly puzzling one, even though things appear to resemble something from the natural world that’s not quite the case. In abstract realism there’s no concrete way of winning this game by making sense of it because by design, it has no intention of depicting real life thing in spite of things looking realistic. Then again, that’s the entire point of merging these two dissimilar and contradictory styles of art.

So, what’s the plan of this project?

The plan for this project consists of depicting a wide variety of works that are based on the resemblance of things that are turned into an abstract form. This process will be the basis of the first works that I have produced and that are bound through patterns, texture, colors, and lines to capture the essence of a real thing. The goal I aim to accomplish with this project is to develop more complex works that will continually seek to combine these two elements without the need of defining them.

Since this is the most recent project that I’ve gained a focus for, I still have much to learn about it, but as of now, I greatly enjoy these two works that I’ve been able produce based on the foundation of abstract realism. I have a few tools that I want to explore with this project that involve more experimentation and playfulness, so I will try to keep an update on this project, hopefully soon.

Shell Life Span, 18 x 24 ink on paper