(Today is)
(Today is)
January 1, 2023 — present
5 x 7 in. each
Paper, watercolor, gouache, acrylic
(Today is) is an ongoing series of paintings of the phrase “and it never will be again.” As in: Today is January 25, 2024, and it never will be again. Each day spent in my studio results in a new painting. Part optimistic rallying cry, part nihilistic declaration, this phrase is a way for me to bestow permanence to my fleeting days.
This practice has the strange effect of elongating time in the way that only a repetitive action can, while also in effect “wasting” a portion of the very day I’m trying to record. I have the record, but what does it really say about the day other than I wanted a memento of it?
While making these paintings I often think of the Nine Inch Nails song “Every Day is Exactly the Same” though what I’m trying to impress on myself is the opposite—that every day is not exactly the same, even when it sort of feels like I’m running on a loop. In its most optimistic iteration, this project is my best attempt to remember that each day is a singular thing. Some days I believe it. Some feel like the worst repetition imaginable.
Either way, today is the only today there is. The days still slip through my fingers, and time continues to march onward, but at least I have proof.
Clockwise: (Today is) February 3, 2023, (Today is) April 30, 2023, (Today is) March 2, 2023, (Today is) May 23, 2023
Clockwise: (Today is) July 31, 2023, (Today is) November 20, 2023, (Today is) August 14, 2023, (Today is) December 2, 2023
(Today is) 2023 paintings installed in studio