James Behan

This series began when I picked up a small book of poetry by Oscar Wilde. I was first impacted by his frequent allusions to color with his writing; as if he were painting his poems. At this moment I began to visually translate his words into actual paint, creating works that reflect a gilded decay. Colors identified in his poems are recorded on the paint surfaces. Text from the mentioned poems is seen in the artwork titles. Subject wise, with his words, and with my own work, a lost world, Arcadia, is discovered through the encounter with the exotic, specifically Egypt. This longed for lost land is contrasted with the strictures of the English Victorian society in which he lived, and with the current cultural climate I experience as a gay man in America. With my work, glimpses of Arcadia are seen through the silver, but obstructed by intimidating but beautiful bars of color. The harsh realities of the current world are further experienced through the found bricks, and the found outdoor furniture reflective of a garden both real and imagined. 

"No man steps in the same river twice, it is not the same river and he is not the same man."    Heraclitus

These paintings are a meditation on the elemental aspects of water and wind as metaphors for human experience. They underscore how, as with natural currents, human persons often have little or no control over the moments in life that overtake and overwhelm, whether slowly and deliberately, or suddenly and unexpectedly.

These paintings examine the notion of the idealized human being;  how subcultures (social, religious, political) both inflate and deflate personalities (real and created) to establish beliefs to fulfill ever changing aspirations of human behavior.