Separation I
1984 - Present
Description
Separation is a representation of grief and loss. It consists of two pieces that should be seen as complementary to each other, reflecting the emotional intensity of mourning. The three colors in the composition convey a striking image of separation: the blue evokes the weight and stillness of grief, while the orange cuts across the picture like a wound; symbolizing both pain and the persistence of memory and humanity.
The warm white suggests absence, the quiet void left behind, or the sense of a world hollowed by loss. Through these three opposing yet interrelated colors, the work constructs a space where loss, grief, and mourning coexist—each tone amplifying the emotional depth of the other and revealing the fragile equilibrium between presence and absence.
Artist Notes
I created these abstractions to signify my emotional disconnection to the terrain of my current state of grief, longing for my Family, to hug and touch my Mother, the loss of my Father, the warmth of our Family's gathering, inter connection of our shared love for one another. These rigid images are intentionally rigid to express how life in separation has made them harder, rougher, more rigid, they are intentionally never to touch, to signify the gravity and inertia of the distances between them, clearly belonging together yet never able to touch, and kept apart, seperated by the cruelty of a punitive authoritarian regime, that keeps us imprisoned by their hatred, and distorted fears, further distorting our shapes, shaping us into something rigid to the outside world. They have become symbols of fractured dissonance, the separation is deliberately painted, the simplicity intentional in the primary colors specificity, my reflection upon the irrationality of it all. Days I am without words to express or convey the heaviness of my longing for semblance cohesion for the simple act of gathering with family and loved ones to simply be normalized again. For me, and others like me, that is not the reality, like others who know this wound of separation; observing the rigidity that resisting this kind of separation creates in the body, acknowledging without numbing the impacts of this seperation has taken upon my life, and other like me. These pieces are the fragments of respect for the markings that injury has left upon my heart. I leave it on the canvas, and remove it from occupying my heart.
Preservation Notes
This painting is part one of a co-joined painting dedicated to his separation from his family before the October 2023 genocide began. Painted on linen mount composite canvas in 2025 with acrylics, sealed with polymer sealant, kept in climate control environment/gallery. Both Pieces have been preserved with professional Archival framing standards fully administered. Museum glass with UV-filtering acrylic that blocks up to 99% of harmful ultraviolet rays to stop fading. Must be pulled for maintenance every 5 years, coating treatments reapplied. Next maintenance date January 2031. Excellent condition.
