Bridled Eagle

Acrylic paint, gel prints, and collage on reverse of plastic sheeting, mounted to art board. 36"x29"x6" Made in 2024. "Bridled Eagle" is a sculptural painting that juxtaposes flat, deliberate space with the organic twists and folds of my sculptural technique. At its heart lies a gel print derived from a vintage Playboy ad, featuring an image of a car—a seemingly mundane object transformed into a focal point by its placement in this work. The decision to showcase the ad within an open, flat area invites the viewer to pause, reflect, and consider the car’s arbitrary presence in the overall composition. Surrounding this flat space, the soft sculpture emerges in dynamic, twisting forms, evoking a sense of fluidity and tension. These sculptural elements challenge the viewer’s gaze, pulling it away from the ad and into a chaotic interplay of movement and texture. The contrast between the controlled flatness and the twisting sculpture highlights the duality of distraction and focus, a theme amplified by the absurdity of the car’s inclusion in the original ad—a relic of consumer culture's attempts to tether meaning to the superficial. The title, "Bridled Eagle," hints at restraint and majesty, suggesting a deeper narrative of containment and freedom. It mirrors the relationship between the flat and sculptural elements, where the ad’s stillness anchors the untamed flow of the surrounding form, inviting the viewer to contemplate the tension between these opposing forces.