“The gloom hanging over our global heads has filtered into my work.

In the middle of March, I put aside my life-confirming abstract oil paintings rooted in the joys of spring and picked up some sumi ink. I spread the ink on some watercolor paper. I applied layers of ink and ultimately created a deep field of darkness. So now I was gazing into the abyss. Looking around my studio, I found an old tube of Azure blue gouache. I divided the paper into rows and painted blue forms in random order across each section of the paper. The typical subject of my abstractions are a mixture of my daily experiences, memory and studio practice but this work is a direct result of my preoccupation with this awful virus.

My decisions are intuitive but when I first became aware of my choose of black and blue as my dominant elements, I thought the work might reflect my subliminal psychological feeling of being battered and bruised by the horror of this pandemic. I now see references to dismemberment, deterioration, and distancing. Even the relentless observation of the COVID letter forms have filtered into to my image making.”

— Chris Gregson (Fredericksburg, VA)