Michael Haight

Region: Pacific Coast

 My arts practice is intertwined with my Buddhist practice. Themes of compassion, suffering, cycles of death and birth, and the accumulation of wisdom flow through each image. In my series Alcoholic Crepuscules, about the nights when my friends and I drank until sunrise, each image is anchored by the inevitable sunrise—a new beginning selfishly ignored by those seeking to elongate the nighttime. The work in my series Ten Directions focuses on giving and receiving, exerting control and being controlled, and the benefits of blessings—essentially the simultaneous narratives of interaction that pervade in all directions.

My series of headless forms reference our body language as we tumble after illusions. In all my work I use gouache and watercolor over a chalky gesso to create thin, transparent washes of color over wide spaces. Afterwards I go in with a fine, scriptlike hand to define and focus form and figure.