He makes work that doesn't flinch. His paintings are mixed media — layers of paint, texture and material built up and torn back down, each one a record of a feeling pushed through until it found its form. They deal in the things that are hardest to say out loud: grief, longing, beauty, strangeness, the weight of being human. You don't just look at them. You feel them.
He is also a musician. His songs are not a side project. They come from the same place the paintings do — the same late nights, the same restlessness, the same need to find the shape of a feeling and hold it still for a moment. When his music plays alongside his paintings, something happens in the room. Collectors describe it as recognition. That is exactly what he is going for.
Blake batson
“When people ask me what I'm passionate about, it’s hard, because I feel as though my true passion is people and the human experience, with the urge to listen and discuss. This is why I believe I have found an interest in film, the perspective of people; and, why I am a part of Eternal.
I have delivered, fridges, washing machines, pizzas, junk mail, I have worked at a cinema, made air conditioners and sold Christmas trees. In many ways my work has brought me closer to people, but not with the independence I was looking for.
I have spent a year in Australia, and 3 months in southeast Asia, and a few other countries in between. Travelling is the easiest way to understand and form relationships with people, finding both the beauty and the horrors of the planet.
I studied creative media in college, and for years have let that dream fade away, with few occasions giving me intent, never believing in myself to go through with it. This, Eternal, is the end of that.”
Eternal · Art collectives