Senior Art Exhibit 2007: Joshua Dildine

Joshua Dildine

Everywhere we look we are constantly bombarded with distractions and we are congested with images that inhibit us from seeing beyond the realms of our day-to-day life. Throughout the Central Valley of California, the flat plains and countless rows of trees and grape vines generate a feeling of infinity. I constantly find myself lost in the tranquil setting of the Valley floor when driving along Highway 99 and the back roads of central California's farm land that enable me to distinguish the horizon. Staring at the distant vista where the sky meets the earth I get a sense of the divine, feeling as if the horizon is the point at which the soul picks up where the body leaves off. It is the place where the physical ends and eternity begins. When this view is interrupted by shopping malls, track homes, and other man-made distractions, the perspective becomes skewed.

In this series I have emphasized the infinite horizon line by minimizing the subject, showing the association of the two planes. As a result, I wish to portray the divinity which is suggested in this connection. Inspired by the landscape, I attempt to make the subject secondary to focus more towards the directness of the paint. The distillation of the subject allows small or insignificant details to become more relevant and sincere. In these paintings I attempt to emphasize simplicity and defy the difficulty that surrounds us in our everyday lives.