Volcano: Eruption, Release, and the Landscape of Emotion

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Size: 4ft x 4ft
Creation Date: 2020
Collection: Ephemeral Atmosphere

Volcano (2020), part of my Ephemeral Atmosphere Collection, was born from the simmering emotions of a year spent in enforced stillness. Created on a 48 x 48 inch acrylic on canvas, this painting captures the moment when containment breaks, when pressure transforms into an uncontrollable eruption.

In this work, deep reds, molten oranges, and searing yellows explode upward from the lower third of the canvas, layered over smoky blacks and grays that seem to smother yet also fuel the eruption. The brushstrokes are aggressive, thick, almost volcanic in their texture, emphasizing the visceral energy of release.

In spirit, Volcano draws parallels with Philip Guston, whose later works brought raw, cartoonish forms and fleshy pinks into the realm of personal and political turmoil. Like Guston, I wanted Volcano to hold a bodily, almost grotesque energy — a painting that is not just seen but felt in the gut.

While Guston’s works often feature symbolic forms, Volcano leans into abstraction, letting the eruption itself be both the subject and the metaphor. It speaks to the moments when emotions can no longer be contained, when what simmers beneath bursts into the surface of our lives.

As part of the Ephemeral Atmosphere Collection, Volcano stands as a record of rupture, an acknowledgment that release, while messy and uncontrollable, is also necessary — a natural, even beautiful part of the emotional landscape.