Chance Murray Painting

I begin every painting as if it were something to be terrified of. However the painting itself is not what we should be scared of, it is the idea of the painting. Ideas are powerful things. I begin attacking the idea, knocking it out onto the blank canvas, pounding away with rhythmic brushstrokes and powerful jabs and scraping with knives. I try to maintain an aspect of a giant experiment, or a never ending story by giving the paintings their own characters that inter act with the next painting and so on and so fourth.

This giant story or experiment of life is reflected as spheres, or eggs, sperms, or simply very free flowing organic forms. These organic and natural shapes exist in a world of heavy industrial waste And decay.

I feel my work displays the friction between the natural and the unnatural, the real and the unreal. it shows the confrontation between the needs of humans to survive, and the needs of corporations to keep humans alive, as well as the struggle between the dying planet, and the industry that makes it run.

Born in Philadelphia, PA, Chance has a deep affliction for heavy industry. This love for smoke, and acid washed buildings is reflected profusely in his paintings, drawings, and sculptures. the washed out, thick layering of paint on his canvases becomes confronted by the subtle organic forms and undertones of his new home in HIllsborough,NC.

Chance refuses to be called an abstract expressionist commenting that, “While my work can be viewed as abstract,emotion can only exist in the worlds of photography, and cinema, my work is merely one giant experiment with lots of storytelling devices embedded deep within itself, each new painting is simply a new chapter in the book of lie.”