Michael Goodson
Home: Ottawa, Ontario
Title: Headland
Media: Acrylic and latex and PDF board
Dimensions: 178 x 122 cm
Website: michaelgoodson.com
Instagram: @michaelrossgoodson
ARTIST STATEMENT
My painting explores the skin of paint as both a place of conjuring of a human presence and as a medium exuding its own qualities. I have explored traditional and non-traditional processes, tools and materials in order to reflect an understanding of the way this skin suggests and creates empathy in the viewer through the dimpled sag of slackened skin, the muscular furrows of a worried brow and the scoring of laugh-lined cheeks. My work addresses both the languages of representation and our visceral responses to material, our affective response.
Each piece is both a topography and a psychology. In close proximity, while I’m working, the work is a terrain or territory, resembling a topographical map or aerial photograph of geological formations. As one’s distance from the piece increases it is meant to elicit an emotional response in the viewer. When I’m working, I don’t consider the painting successful until I feel I’m being looked back at, being confronted by a psychology.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
This work ‘Headland’ is my 5th painting of my former neighbour Harold Head, dating back to 2011. Harold would regularly drive by my house on his mobility scooter and when I heard the motor I would come out to chat with him. When I asked if I could photograph him for a painting he said “If you want me with hair, you’ll have to photograph me today”. He explained that his son in Botswana had just died of AIDS and there was going to be a service via Facetime. Harold was shaving his head and beard as tribute to his son. He could not attend the service in person because of his mobility issues. We decided that I would photograph him twice, once with hair and once without. This painting was inspired by those photo shoots. The title ‘Headland’, like many of my recent paintings, is a play on the personal and the topographical nature of my work.