2022
The Elusive Subconscious
Acrylic painting on canvas.
30x40 inches.
2022
The following is a description I wrote for this painting:
Have you ever woken up from a beautiful dream that you wished could have gone on forever?
After you wake up, you are forced to adjust to the painful fact that your dream was never reality.
The first few minutes of the day you spend mourning over what once was.
Then you quickly move on and let the dream slowly disappear from your memory as you go on with your day.
Perhaps once in a while, small fragments of the dream reappear in your mind, and you long for the events of your dream.
Dreams reveal and force us to confront our deepest fears, desires, thoughts and innermost emotions. In our dreams, we encounter many frightening truths about ourselves, which can be quite ugly and make us uncomfortable. Often, these truths are buried underneath layers of nonsensical elements, waiting to be revealed. When we finally do see the truth, it can horrify and disgust us, shaking us to our core.
While the ugly truth might be hidden behind a staircase and a door, it patiently waits to be discovered.
“The Elusive Subconscious”
A homage to my favorite film, Mulholland Drive.
Transcription of the text above the staircase:
“The Puppetmaster”
Acrylic painting on canvas
24x30 inches
April 2022
“Underworld”
Acrylic painting on canvas
11x14 inches
May 2022
“To Reminisce”
This painting was part of my senior spring term project. The painting is accompanied by a poem, as seen on the right ( if you are viewing this on a computer) or below this text (if you are viewing this on a phone).
Acrylic painting on canvas
18x24 inches
May 2022
No Man Waits For Time
Alex Gibbs
I’ve been told
That the older I get the more my perception of time will warp.
That the years gone by will feel like months.
That the months will feel like days.
And the blurry line between the thousands of days
Will erase many memories from existence.
How will my persona change as my skin withers away?
When my wrinkles multiply,
My bones weaken,
And I approach my impending mortality.
How will I approach the giant of mortality?
Will I cower at the infinitude of death?
Or will I defy human nature
and stand unshaken,
In the face of an incomprehensible notion.
Some come to terms with their mortality.
Others develop the narrative that they are invincible,
and pretend that the distant day
that they will take their last breath,
will never occur.
A case of permanent personal fable.
In the face of such a terrifying idea,
I can only be sure of one thing;
that I will spend my days philosophizing
about the meaning of my life,
and my eventual death.
“Tokyo, Japan”
This painting was part of a senior spring term project I completed. The painting is accompanied by the poem, “Tokyo, Japan” shown to the right of the painting (if you are viewing on a computer) or below this text (if you are viewing on a phone).
Acrylic painting on canvas
24x18 inches
May 2022
Tokyo, Japan
By Alex Gibbs
I feel so lost these days,
traveling through the streets of Tokyo.
Living off minimum wage,
struggling to find my inner balance.
I arrived in Japan five years ago
to find myself.
Now I feel more lost than when I arrived.
I have been submerged into the inhumane conditions of the Japanese working culture.
The daily grind makes me feel like Sisyphus,
pushing a boulder of papers and reports.
Up a mountain of deadlines that never ends.
That never will end.
Sometimes I wonder if I live to work or
If I work to live,
Or maybe a mixture of both.
As my paycheck increases,
my hours spent inside the walls of my clustered cubicle increase,
and my passion evades me.
Each day my smile of feigned enthusiasm grows thinner and thinner.
Ironic.
I came here to find myself.
Now I am a perpetual foreigner,
doomed to never feel like I belong.
Though the country has gotten more accepting of foreigners over the years,
I still get the occasional stare at the park,
or the supermarket,
or anywhere else really.
A kid will stare at me like I’m some sort of spectacle,
whisper to his friends,
give me one last curious glare,
then laugh and walk away.
Perhaps I idealized Japanese culture.
I was drawn here by the art,
the fashion,
and the food.
The ethereal beauty of the sakura trees,
and the shrines captivated me.
From the outside, Japan seemed so perfect.
A land without flaws.
To think I came here to escape the mundane reality of American suburbia,
just to be met with the grim reality that heaven is not a place on earth.
No culture derived by humanity will be perfect.
Humanity will never be perfect.