Caged Emotions

With the primitive concept of  caged emotions in mind, I aggressively tore thin strips of canvas and gessoed them to a custom stretched  25 ½” x 33" x 1 ½”  canvas. After this dried, I Worked  quickly with a pallet knife building up thick layers of oil paint, scumbling layer over layer covering the entire canvas to represent a depth of anguish. 

I then go onto blackening the thin strips of canvas with a large round brush, recreating the mental bars we forge in our minds to suppress our emotions

The yellow glob of paint on the upper left is the spirit, although faint as it may be, it relentlessly struggles to pry open the bars,.to let it all the hell out.