How The Fuck Did I Get Here?

These paintings took a long time for me to create; not to actually paint them, but to have the history and the emotional surplus in order to get them started.

Painting, for me, needs to have history and longevity. They have to have visceral meaning. The nine paintings in this series are a culmination of specific people, events and feelings from the past 22 years. There is heartbreak, anger, happiness, bitterness, regret, and nostalgia; basically, it’s just life.

I worked on these paintings without restraint and without overthinking - something I am usually guilty of when the media first hits the canvas. There are accidents and mistakes in each one, even though they were carefully composed. Again, that’s life.

These are honest paintings and a few of them are difficult to look at because they address my fuck ups, not others’. I am happy to have experienced the events that inspired this body of work. They are my memories and my scars; my history.

nick bautista

nick bautista