This painting is a simplified, childlike figure sitting criss-cross-apple-sauce. The figure is enraptured with what it is looking at, almost begging the viewer to join in its rapture. The muted peach and orange tones are meant to evoke child-like innocence and surrender. The head is a rectangular box in light orange with simple features: two small circles for eyes and small teeth for a mouth. The head is missing its lower jaw, it is no longer needed. The body is a rounded shape with X's for nipples and an oval for a navel. The short, stubby arms end in hand-like shapes with orange accents for fingernails, while the toenails are similarly simple, with orange accents.

The style is naive, with no detailed perspective or realistic anatomy. It is meant to feel innocent and simple, reminiscent of childhood and saturday morning cartoons in front of the box setup. The background is a blend of orange and pale yellow and off-white, to create a peaceful atmosphere. The edges are slightly distressed, with orange paint spilling onto the frame. 

  
The overall mood is meant to be quiet and reflective, evoking a serene, slightly melancholic stillness.

I'm OK With My Hermitage in Autumn

I started this one off by gluing the foil wrappings of candy to the canvas. Then I painted it with a paint roller, spray painted, and came back over with sharpie.

Sterilization / Gentrification

\*In Private Collection\*

Death juxtaposed with The Hanged Man

  
On the left, Death. The horse is rendered with delicate, swirling lines to suggest the movement of a dreamlike quality. On the right side, there is The Hanged Man. This figure is suspended upside down, their facial features are ethereal, uncertain, to enhance the sense of fragility and suspension.

  
The background is a light, pastel yellow-green, completely covered in a dense pattern of small colored dots in pink, green, and dark grey. These dots are unevenly distributed, creating a textured, psychedelic atmosphere. Curving lines are interwoven around the two main figures, adding more to the sense of movement and intensity. The combination of the polka dot background, the stark linework, and the watercolor washes on the flower and knight’s banner creates a style that blends various influences, suggesting elements of medieval imagery, tattoo art, and Art Nouveau in the floral elements. 

  
The overall atmosphere is fantastical and dreamlike, blending elements of death (the skeleton knight) and life (the blossoming flower and graceful figure), creating a complex and intriguing narrative of rebirth and survival. The mood I attempt is both mysterious and serene.

Two Card Spread

My painting attempts whimsy, a whimsy dominated by bold colors and geometric shapes. The painting is meant to convey the joyful and chaotic energy of picking yourself back up again. Falling apart is tragic, stained glass is beautiful. This attempts the space in between.

  
My artwork deals with shapes and forms, predominantly in a bold, childlike style. I believe that we never make better art than when we are young, and everything after that is derivative. Including the way we put ourselves back together again.

  
Stylistically, the painting takes cues from Cubism and Folk Art.

The Hard Work of Heart Repair

The style of this piece is expressionism; immediate. I favor the gestural and spontaneous. My focus is on energetic brushstrokes, visible texture, and emphasis on color over fine detail. This is meant to evoke the feeling of the event the painting is based on. For a few years I participated in the Pancakes and Booze show in Los Angeles; this is meant to capture the energy of the event. I put in a playful chaos to the composition, but controlled and textured with the use of charcoal alongside paint to allow for the dichotomy of the false and real. 

  
The atmosphere I evoke is meant to be lively and vibrant, if not somewhat chaotic. Energetic brushstrokes and paradoxical colors are supposed to create a sense of movement and dynamism. 

  
This piece is the product of an impulsive creative process. The mood is not overtly happy or sad, but rather one of intense immediacy. The long line to get in, the buzzing energy when your inside, the love of art on full display; there's a certain playfulness in the way the structures interlock and the details are suggested rather than explicitly defined. Despite the apparent disorder, I hope there's a coherence to the whole that holds the viewer's attention.

Catch One, Los Angeles

This painting is an abstract expression of anatomy, meant to be part of a larger collection. I am to create a body of work that is pastiche, that can be collected independently and used to create "bodies" of work.

At its core, the piece is a stylized rib cage. The structure's a skeletal framework, formed by elongated, curving lines that suggest ribs. I used a variety of colors for these lines—light blues, pale greens, and muted purples—avoiding uniformity in their shape and spacing to create an organic, almost fluid quality. Between the "ribs," I filled the spaces with patches of color, where bright reds and oranges stand out vividly against the softer tones. 

  
Framing the central structure are two stylized flowers or eyes, painted in deep purple and maroon. These biomorphic shapes add to the organic, life-inspired feel of the painting. At the heart of the "rib cage," I placed a small, bright red heart— present, but unpronounced. The overall style is expressive and gestural. Through layered paint, I attempt to create a sense of depth and texture, while the rough, spontaneous line work is meant to add a raw, dynamic energy. 

  
In essence, here I hope to evoke a sense of both fragility and resilience.

  
Here I aimed for melancholy; the fragility of the human body versus the resilience of the human spirit; a modern Momento Mori. An out of time anatomical study.

Ribcage

The artwork is dominated by its palette. I've gone for more of a folk art style technique. Thick, visible brushstrokes are meant to add texture to the piece while enhancing the sense of energy and immediacy.

  
The painting is primarily abstract, yet is meant to evoke the suggestion of two faces, a double portrait or a single face with a split personality. These faces are not realistically rendered but are composed of simplified shapes and forms. Large, rounded, bright teal areas represent eyes, while other shapes and color blocks suggest noses, mouths, and other facial features. The shapes interlock and overlap, creating a sense of dynamism and ambiguity. The colors are applied in blocks and curving lines resulting in a sense of lively movement and energy.

Black lines, applied with a thicker brush, delineate and outline the shapes, providing a structural framework to the colorful chaos.I'm using contrasting colors to create depth and visual interest. Lighter tones are offset by deeper, richer hues. There are hints of geometric shapes amidst the organic forms which suggest an interplay between structure and spontaneity. The background suggests, through a mixture of colors, a horizon or possibly flat surface.

Stylistically, the painting is influenced by both naive art (with its child-like simplicity and directness) and graffiti or street art (with the bold colors and layered application of paint). The overall composition is energetic and slightly chaotic yet manages maintain a sense of balance.

  
> The atmosphere is meant to be lively and expressive, almost playful, yet there's an underlying tension created by the juxtapositions of shapes and colors. This tension is meant to evoke the underlying anxiety one feels when they are out of place, or perceive themselves to be such - hinting at the duality or internal conflict that lies at the heart of social interaction. 

Anxious Smile

This abstract painting is a blend of modernism, cubism and expressionism. The surface, corrugated cardboard, peeks through the paint, adding a tactile dimension. It also adds a sense of mortality to the piece. It will not stand the test of time, and must be enjoyed for the form it currently takes for the viewer. Cheap acrylic paint, found cardboard, a refusal to add glass; add a lifespan to the piece. The choice of canvas is inspired by the re-use, re-cycle, reduce mindset; as well as to counter the idea that great art must exist forever. Greatness, exists in the flicker. The color palette blends earthy tones like beige and brown with the warm and bright hues of early Las Vegas and Los Angeles neon signs. I use thick, black line to outline these forms to create an interplay between structure and abstraction.

  
The shapes are primarily geometric, with irregular circles, rectangles, and triangles overlapping and interacting. Some curvilinear forms are also used to soften the edges of the composition. The colors are applied broadly, with visible brushstrokes that contribute to the painting's energy and movement. Some areas of color are more uniform, while others show a blended or textured application.

  
The overall mood of the painting is dynamic and energetic. The juxtaposition of warm and cool colors, combined with the varied shapes and sizes, creates a sense of visual excitement. The style emphasizes fragmentation and reassembly of forms. The painting, again, depicts a face or mask; depending on how one interprets the shapes. The piece invites the viewer to engage with its visual complexity and suggest their own narrative. This co-creation of meaning between the artist and audience is paramount to my message.

King

The artwork is a bold, abstract painting featuring a fragmented face composed of three wooden panels. The face is outlined in thick black lines, with colors inspired by the rising and setting of the sun filling in sections of the design. This is meant to evoke the beauty of newness and decay, simultaneously. The facial features, including eyes, nose, and mouth, are stylized and exaggerated, with curves and angles creating an expressive, almost tribal or mask-like appearance. I've always been inspired by indigenous art and have strived to take inspiration from the style without appropriating it inappropriately. I've muted the background to allow the colors and lines of the face to dominate the piece. The focus should be on the expression, and how it is shifted by the influences on it. 

How I Smile

This artwork is a simple, abstract depiction of a car meant to evoke white chalk on a blackboard. The strokes are created with traditional Japanese calligraphy brushes. The car is illustrated with basic shapes: a rounded top for the roof, a horizontal line for the body, and two circular shapes representing wheels. The style is childlike and playful, drawing on my idea of a car generated in my childhood and emphasizes minimalistic and expressive line work.

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Thomas Skahill