Braden Bandel
I am interested in painting as a container for the psychological, as well as an escape, or release valve. I am drawn to themes related to gothic and science fiction modes of depiction and storytelling such as ruins, temporal paradoxes, the psychological landscape, weather as metonymy, among others. I have a proclivity for the fantastical and the melancholic which remain as abiding themes in my recent work. My works on paper are made with sumi ink, often incorporating collage as well as suminagashi paper marbling techniques. I find that ink has an interesting balance between its ability to depict light and its stubborn materiality - an almost tension which I want to commingle with my subject matter. In my oil paintings I think of color as a vehicle for content because of its ability to create mood and atmosphere. In some works, scenes of nature and the landscape are suffused with a sense of strange artificiality. In others, I employ a color palette meant to be reminiscent of twilight with the intention of infusing the scenes and subject matter with the mood, associations, and liminal nature of that time.
