Daniel Baker / In his own words
Artist Statement
I paint the distance between what we think, what we feel and what we do.
I call this inquiry Inner Ecology. A painting begins with poured color and movement I cannot fully control. Through drawing and transparent layers, bodies become visible while remaining part of the field around them.
I want enough form for a body to be felt, and enough openness for someone else’s experience to enter.
The personal beginning
The first movement of the paint stays active in the finished work. I follow it, test possible figures in the sketchbook, and decide where a body needs to become clear and where it can disappear. The figure and its surroundings grow through the same process.
I grew up in the American South, the gay son of a pastor. The distance between what I thought I should feel and what I actually felt became something I could not ignore.
Understanding that distance did not make it disappear. Painting gives me a way to stay with it without deciding too quickly what it means. I return to bodies that are becoming visible, yet remain connected to the uncertain space around them.
These paintings developed before I had clear language for the inquiry behind them. I now call it Inner Ecology. My own experience is where the work begins, but I want it to remain open to someone whose life has been very different from mine.
Daniel Baker