Cortex rebith
AARON BROADBENT
I Met AARon on groundhog day.
It was a mutual friend’s “viewing party” and as we watched Bill murray struggle through the same day over and over (the film also on repeat), we spoke of the daily struggle in keeping up with life, work, and a practice of making art.
Over a year later I met AARon in his home studio in the By-water. He had a new approach to painting. There stood two very large Vibrant peices of wood, their grain patterns filled with color. He had used water based wood stain in bright blues and yellows, balanced with warm browns and greys.
I couldn’t help but call them “water paintings”, after the water based stain, and the characteristic of the wood whose growth recorded the availability of water each year. Aaron embellished upon nature’s already beautiful creation. highlighting its wax and wane, broadness and delicateness — in lively yet balanced color.
“Growth” is not only a theme of this work. AARon is comfortable and open when it comes to talking about the challenges of healing old wounds, leaving habits behind, and seeking into the unknown. he’s evolved his relationship with instant gratification, and the substances that bring it. he’s spent this past year deeply reflecting on his brain’s physical healing, naming the show Cortex rebirth.
some ground hog days between, aaron found balance in work, and art - opening his first llc as an independent builder, plumber, and handyman, and creating a new body of work for a solo show. The lesson I suspect was gathered from time with the paintings themselves: tracing over the patience of a growing tree.
what Bill Murray taught us and aaron embodies— is that we should not meet our days with frustration, but with gratitude and an eye focused on growth.
ABOUT AARON BROADBENT
"I am an artist, one whose art practice is paintings-centric. I approach artmaking as liberating research about perceptions of reality.
I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. While I was living in their homes, my mother emphasized the significance of spirituality and learning, and my father encouraged exploration of the arts and protection of the environment.
After graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design's undergraduate Painting program and halfway through the Teaching + Learning in Art and Design master's program, the Covid-19 Pandemic began. In response, I changed course from Children's Museum Exhibit Design to various employment in construction fields such as Carpentry, Plumbing, and Handyperson-ing. I was searching out how to apply the skills I was developing as an artist to urgent needs of people in the world.
During those five years, a relationship with wood took root and is beginning to blossom in one part of my art practice. Also during that time, it became apparent to me that the challenges of the world to which we can contribute the most benefit are the ones we can relate to with personal experience.
Fine art painting and work in construction have revealed many layers of our reality which were previously invisible to me. The work I am currently most interested in making is that which aims to direct attention to the present moment, providing opportunities for internal recalibration within a world that is often overstimulating."
Artist portraits
SELwyn FIGG @dadwoman
Reach out to us at dogwatergallery@gmail.com if you have any questions about aaron’s show or availability of his work.
ttyl!