Artist’s Statement

I was born with synesthesia, I hear in color. That’s not a metaphor — it’s the collision between sound and color as the starting point for every painting I create.

My process unfolds over months, in layers. I work in oil because of its slow dry time: it leaves a window for new influences to enter the canvas mid-process such as mood, sound, color, texture I maybe hadn’t planned for before the surface closes. Each painting develops more like a sculpture, equal parts addition and removal. I build up layers then literally carve back into the canvas, cutting into what’s already dried to find its base form underneath.

I paint what I see and feel, but also what I hear. Sound isn’t decorative here — it’s structural. The vibration of color is part of the actual subject. Everything else is in service of it.

No environment holds still, so the work doesn’t either. It stays in motion, layer over layer, addition and removal, until it settles into its own kind of balance. My hope is that the paintings carry that same equilibrium that a favorite piece of music carries for a listener — not a fixed image but a frequency that resonates.

– David Selib