Muted Resistance
type: CreativeWork
description: "And what if thou withdraw in silence from the living, and no friend take note of thou departure? All that breathe will share thy destiny." Thanatopsis, William Cullen Bryant. My paintings represent the voice of silenced negative human emotion. The works are expressions of negativity, despondency, confusion, anxiety, subjugation, and the loss of identity. They are examples of internal reactions to external tension. Each piece presents a fragile state of vulnerability and the act of fighting against or succumbing to the overwhelming distress. Together, they represent our human psyche and physical tolerance to the many degrees of agony. The forceful application of graphite and charcoal suffocates the subjects; in addition, they are the subjects' responses to the stifling, imposing forces. They define certain parts of the figures while also heightening the inner tempest within the human forms of each work. The uneven, seemingly haphazard size and shape of each work on paper is a direct result of the immediacy of the process and acts as the stressed and tattered forms within each work. Through the process of creating the image, tears and rips developed on the surface, which intensify the individual strains upon each figure. The sheer size of the paintings on canvas magnifies the severity of each subject's situation and response. Raw emotion and the subsequent intensity and energy that are manifested form the muted resistance that constitutes the body of work. My paintings are heavy, dark, and psychologically intense. Angst and brutality are pervasive in them. They depict the depths and disappointments of existence and the potential for defiant aggression. I am embracing the ferocity and hostility of life and the violent reactions that lie dormant.
abstract: "And what if thou withdraw in silence from the living, and no friend take note of thou departure? All that breathe will share thy destiny." Thanatopsis, William Cullen Bryant. My paintings represent the voice of silenced negative human emotion. The works are expressions of negativity, despondency, confusion, anxiety, subjugation, and the loss of identity. They are examples of internal reactions to external tension. Each piece presents a fragile state of vulnerability and the act of fighting against or succumbing to the overwhelming distress. Together, they represent our human psyche and physical tolerance to the many degrees of agony. The forceful application of graphite and charcoal suffocates the subjects; in addition, they are the subjects' responses to the stifling, imposing forces. They define certain parts of the figures while also heightening the inner tempest within the human forms of each work. The uneven, seemingly haphazard size and shape of each work on paper is a direct result of the immediacy of the process and acts as the stressed and tattered forms within each work. Through the process of creating the image, tears and rips developed on the surface, which intensify the individual strains upon each figure. The sheer size of the paintings on canvas magnifies the severity of each subject's situation and response. Raw emotion and the subsequent intensity and energy that are manifested form the muted resistance that constitutes the body of work. My paintings are heavy, dark, and psychologically intense. Angst and brutality are pervasive in them. They depict the depths and disappointments of existence and the potential for defiant aggression. I am embracing the ferocity and hostility of life and the violent reactions that lie dormant.
author: Ortiz, Wesley Harris
keywords: Painting
date published: 2013-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T03:05:43Z
provider: University of Mississippi
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Mississippi