Thomas Pathé

Region: Pacific Coast

The work is intended to be both strong and seductive, communicating on a gut level with the observer. Layers of paint and varnish unite with their sculpted surfaces to present color as a physical experience. The colors I paint with are common to the human experience and most have an intimate relation to the body. Many of the colors are taken from products and food substances that I was raised on or around, such as mayonnaise, cherries, peanut butter, and baloney. Non-food items like skin and dust have also become paintings. When a hue is decided upon, the item, substance, or living thing is digitally scanned and translated into latex paint. The ultimate color is often an amalgam of multiple scans of a given item. (Example: different brands of baloney, varying values of dust.) The paint is thinned down into a transparent solution and then painted in multiple layers between coats of varnish. Degrees of variance or discrepancy that exist between different scans of essentially the same thing are conveyed in the translation into paint, and ultimately synthesized in the painting itself.

Most important to the process is my strong conviction that intuition is integral in the development of the individual. All of the colors I choose, and their referents, are key to my life experience. As such, they are integrated within my subconscious and materialize in the work through the free play of intuition. The intended result is to create paintings that are simple, subtle, and strong.