Abstract
Better Angels is an exploration of abstract painting in response to collective grief shaped by state violence, particularly related to ICE-related murders in Minneapolis in early 2026. Drawing on the structure of pop-up memorials, the work uses painting as a site of ongoing offering, where marks and layers accumulate like acts of mourning, sustained attention, and care. Influenced by poetry, especially the phrase “better angels” as invoked first by Abraham Lincoln and then by Amanda Gorman, the paintings operate as ethical spaces, rather than narratives. The work holds tension between aspiration and lived reality. Structured as an entanglement of “above,” a moral, aspirational register, and “below,” a chaotic, human nature. Through gesture, layered accumulation, and text, the paintings refuse resolution and instead embrace contradiction. Grief, love, violence, and hope coexist in a single visual field, where sustained attention is a form of ethical engagement.