Narcissus 2017

Roberto Ferri made this striking "Narcissus" painting with oils, delving into a world of classical mythos. I can only imagine what it was like to create this piece... Look at how Ferri uses these dark shadows, contrasted with the pale skin of Narcissus to draw the viewer's eye into the narrative, inviting you to almost feel the cool, hard stone beneath Narcissus’ knees. He’s really thinking about the texture of the oil paint and how it can bring this story to life. You see a lot of Baroque drama here, the kind of painting that seems to be searching for the sublime and the extreme, like Caravaggio. It reminds me that as painters, we're all in this big, messy conversation across time. We're picking up threads, answering each other's questions, and pushing the whole thing forward, one brushstroke at a time. Each mark is a moment of intuition, and each painting a space of possibility.