Muscle Memory II 2019

Jammie Holmes made ‘Muscle Memory II’ with forceful strokes and a palette of muted browns, blacks, and surprising pops of blue and orange. I imagine him attacking the surface, pushing the paint around, wiping it away, building up layers, then scraping them back. It’s like he's wrestling with the image, trying to capture something fleeting and raw. I feel for him. That push and pull of figuring it out. There's something really visceral about it. The black lines defining the eyes and teeth feel urgent, like a quick sketch trying to grab hold of a memory before it fades. You know, there’s a dialogue happening here with artists like Basquiat, who also channeled this energy and immediacy. It's like we're all in this conversation, riffing off each other, trying to find new ways to express the same old stuff: life, death, and everything in between. And that’s why painting is never really finished, it just keeps evolving.