Eddie Alvarez

Title: Chile 1989

Medium: Chalk on Chalkboard
Dimensions (HxWxD): 35″x 23″x 1″
Date: 2005

Title: “bangkok”

Medium: acrylic and epoxy on wood
Dimensions (HxWxD): 17″ x 12″
Date: 2003

Title: “nocturne”

Media: acrylic and epoxy
Dimensions (HxWxD): 24″ x 24″
Date Created: 2003

Eddie Alvarez

The night paintings are a somber, melancholic expression of aimless nights. The initial concept is one of mood and atmosphere. That is to say, the mood of the nocturnal, the dark, the nostalgic, the vulnerability that washes over with the setting of the vibrant sun. In this sense, the subject is symbolic. The dark void of the night a metaphor for an empty loneliness, the bright glare of parading lights a mocking reminder of a seemingly indifferent society. Some may find a feeling of urban/ suburban alienation that is often shared (less often admitted) in our modernized, frigid society. Viewers who themselves have felt this detachment, would in turn, feel a personal connection with a subject otherwise alienating.

The depiction is simple yet substantial. The scenes are essentially landscapes painted mostly from my own photographs. However they are obscured rather than a detailed and accurate representation of the visual or “real” world. Much like the blurred recounts of the estranged, to whom the new day brings only the promise of a less harrowing weight than the night. These are places not completely discernable but familiar to anyone. Under an immensely glossy and thick surface, brush work and inaccuracies are straight-forwardly evidenced and relied upon. The challenge of balancing abstract surface qualities, paint application and communicating an image is the essence of the execution. In this case the communication is via the least refined road possible, using minimal detail in achieving immersive paintings.

[originally published: July, 2006]