Cecily Brown

Some of these paintings are completely inverted; some are done from a combination of sources. Having flowers around to work from is useful...I'll paint directly from the flowers, then from my head, then from photos of gardens or of other peoples' paintings. It seems to work best to mix it up. The black paintings began as a way of escaping from the gnarly, very colorful, and complex landscapes. I was getting very bogged down and wanted to make a more direct image, something more immediately legible. Now I move freely between the more graphic paintings and the fractured ones, working on them all at once and ideally hanging them together. I would love to get rid of the terms "abstract" and "figurative." I like each painting to contradict the last; I like the uncertainty. I'd like the work to be an argument full of interruptions, disruptions, and illogical decisions. I don't want to say, "This is the way it is."