My drawings and paintings are explorations of the unconscious. They are meant to take the viewer through a maze of both recognizable and irrational imagery. Shapes, lines, and colors are stacked and juxtaposed to produce a psychologically charged whole. The subterranean mapping of ideas and emotions in clusters is a method of controlling the movement inside my head. The obsessive nature of my work lies in the unleashing of an energy full of several feelings, including pain, love, struggle, and finally harmony. Each piece is a pathway leading into the eye of the storm, a portal to chaotic richness.
My process consists of visually cutting into a two dimensional plane, be it anatomically, geographically, or psychologically. It is done in two ways. The first type of visual cutting is precise and geometric. The second kind of visual cutting is an improvised slashing using bright lined color that travels in all directions. This process produces extremely dynamic zones of stretching and bursting form coupled with smooth, atmospheric spaces.
There is immediacy to drawing with pastels and painting with acrylics. Pastel and acrylic paint can be rubbed, scratched, swirled, and layered to create a physical landscape of marks. Within this barrage of gestures, the eye of the viewer is constantly pushed and pulled. An abundance of bright and contrasting colors also adds an intensity and rhythm to the mark making.
Alex McShane has a B.A. in English from Boston College and a M.S. in Art Education from Massachusetts College of Art. Upon graduating from art school he taught art at the secondary level and at the San Jose Museum of Art. Alex now teaches art at a junior high school in Washington and continues to paint and draw.