Space X 2002

Jack Armstrong’s canvas fizzes with energy through staccato brushstrokes and a cosmic array of blues, reds, yellows, purples and blacks. Imagine the artist's dance with this painting! Armstrong has fearlessly laid down these marks, each dab and stroke seemingly charting a course through some unknown celestial field. What does it mean to launch yourself into the unknown, trusting only your intuition to guide you? Look at the way the colours seem to vibrate against each other, creating a restless surface. I see some kind of alien garden, like an abstract expressionist Monet. Armstrong's work reminds me of other painters—Willem de Kooning, Joan Mitchell, even some of the Pattern and Decoration artists. They're all chasing this sense of immediacy, trying to capture something fleeting and essential on canvas. It's a reminder that every artist stands on the shoulders of giants, contributing their own unique voice to a never-ending conversation.