Ancient Universal Royals 2006

Jack Armstrong made this painting, Ancient Universal Royals, with paint on canvas. The way the colors drip and splash across the surface shows us that the making of this painting was as important as the final image. If you get up close, you’ll notice how the paint sits on the canvas. Some parts are thick, almost like frosting, while others are thin and runny. The red swirls kind of remind me of veins, like the painting has its own circulatory system. There’s a lot going on here, and I think that’s the point. It’s not about one thing, but about the energy of the whole. It reminds me a bit of action painting, like Pollock, where the gesture and movement become the subject, where the ambiguity makes the artwork resonate.