Muscle Memory 2017

Joshua Flint made this strange and moody painting called "Muscle Memory" without telling us exactly when, or why, but I can guess. The horse and rider are falling, or jumping – are they escaping, or playing? The palette is full of grays, blues and browns, and it feels like it was built up over time. I get the feeling that he started with thin washes and then added thicker passages of paint in the horse and rider to create depth. I know that feeling. The way a painting seems to come into being through shifts, through trial and error. I get the sense that Flint is thinking through paint here. He’s pushing the medium to its limits, using its material properties to evoke feeling and create atmosphere. I think that all paintings are in conversation with each other, and with painting’s past.