[You & I Are Panoramic]

There is a place that exists in the discovery of romantic love where the breath is lost and the heart is responsible for all behavior moving forward. We dissolve into a puddle at the feet of our person and, for a time, nothing else can be seen or heard for miles. Within this space we are freed from the confines of our previous thoughts that “love does not exist for us” and are pushed forward, feet dragging, into an inescapable co-mingling of presence and fantasy, finding it difficult to discern up from down. Each moment, each breath has meaning and gives us new life as if we’ve never lived a day before now. The trick is to not lose yourself in these meanings but to find yourself within them. 

Sometimes we stamp a memory to a place so that we may return to it time and again knowing that that’s where we once belonged. These places were where we began and let our love run without trying to control it; we allowed it to exist in a space that now has its own meaning. The cyclical nature of this series is tricky; begin where you want, end just the same. Allow it to flow, an homage to the very nature of the ocean, into an endless sea of what was, what is, and what might be. And maybe the trick is to stay grounded on land. Find solace in the bodies of land as represented by the bodies of life and know that you must create your own safety as the tide slowly rises to greet you. Getting swept away is not rhetorical here. 

To be an observer through the creation of this series and to also observe the life lived through the experience of the inspiration that caused this series was beautiful. Because the truth is that love is not fantasy. Love is messy. It has to be if we are to bring our most vulnerable self. And in this panoramic series of love there are moments of beauty found within the depths of authenticity, which is sometimes painful. Love is meant to be grieved even while it is created. While we lose these ideas of what we thought love was, we are also left with the beauty of it, which is truth. And what could be more beautiful than that? 

Our bodies and our minds are capable of love as deep as the ocean depths and Diana DeAugustine has created this series based on her own ability to love and be loved. You can’t see them but there are long moments of pause between sets as she learned to navigate what was to come next. Similar to the ocean tide, you can’t predict what will happen in love, you can only stay open to the idea that you will be given what you are supposed to have in each moment. 

The work that went into this series is beyond the paint and resin. Because you can’t paint about love without pausing to question its truth. 

    by Jess Culpepper (12/2021)