Teresa Martinovich

There is a slipperiness to memory, every time you try to grab on, to pull it back to the present, the memory unravels, dissolves, melts. Each time it is rebuilt, something is askew, a line misheard or an object misplaced, leaving you uncertain of what the memory was in the first place. Despite its unreliability, there is always an element that remains in the dredges of what slips through; a persistent, undeniable warmth that existed in these scenes and is embedded anew each time the memory is recalled.

Through washes of solvent-diluted paint and responsive mark-making I attempt to draw out this warmth and recreate the shifting nature of the things I recall. The physicality of the paint is as important as the subject matter, layers of large and gestural brushstrokes create a state of motion and the solvent mixed with oil paint builds pockets of erasure and fragmentation. The figures wane and wax through the canvas, melting into their surroundings, reflecting the qualities of my memory and how it functions.