This painting was inspired by a moment, an experience I had getting In-N-Out Burger with my friend. We had just pulled into a parking spot right in front, just to the right of the front door. As I got out, laughing with my buddy about something stupid one of us had said I heard a man shout. I looked up startled to see a man staring back at me and he shouted again, "WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING MAN YOU HIT MY CAR!" As I was still only halfway out the car I looked down at the door I was holding, wondering if I had really been so careless and unaware that I hit a car without even knowing it. I had never seen more space between two adjacently parked cars in my life. Even if I taped a ruler to my door and threw it open, it wouldn't have hit the car. I relaxed a little but I was just as confused as ever as I continued through this strange interaction, telling the man that I hadn't hit his car while he insisted that he had seen me do it. I didn't bother to stop and try to convince him, my friend and I just continued on to get our burgers, assuming this dude must be drunk or on some shit. But it was one of those moments that I just couldn't forget, and I still can't forget that uneasy feeling of confusion and disbelief. For a moment I questioned and actually stopped trusting my instincts and my experience of not hitting that car, and began to wonder if my faculties were betraying me. It was one of those glitch in the matrix moments.
I made this painting thinking about human experience and the subjectivity of it all. I took this picture in the car as we drove away, still in a daze. To me it perfectly embodies the confusion of the moment and the groundlessness of existence. I particularly love the way it literally shows the same shot from different perspectives using the streaks of light. This piece was also the basis for my later series titled Dark, which further explores these ideas of fear and disorientation in the face of unknowing. I wanted to examine the way darkness leaves everything up to the emotion and imagination of the viewer.
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