Starkey #733 2005

Jack Armstrong made this small painting, Starkey #733, with enamel on canvas. It's a head-trip of swirling marks in red, black, and orange, all fighting for space on a grey ground speckled with stars. I can imagine him working all over the canvas at once, words and drips and symbols, layering it all into a dense field of information. It's like the artist has turned his brain inside out for us to see. I wonder what it was like for him to make it? Was he frantic, ecstatic, or just lost in thought? This looks like the kind of painting where intuition guides the way; maybe he was trying to find something out. Thick globs of red paint cascade down the canvas like blood, contrasting with the thin lines of words scrawled across the surface. The combination of these materials creates a tactile tension. You can feel the give and take. Ultimately, paintings like these are not about answers. They're about posing questions and keeping the conversation going.