Minnesota-based painter T. White has made the elusive transition from corporate designer to independent artist, but has retained his former profession's flair for reliable style and clarity. His paintings use bold colors and intricate jostling of small forms to reinvigorate familiar myths, conventions and archetypes. Working in bright yellows, reds and blues, White gives weighty and ominous narratives overriding hues of exuberance and playfulness through consistently stylized aesthetics. At times, the effect is not unlike seeing Greek mythology as if being portrayed by early Expressionists. Space is distorted, features are exaggerated and streamlined, allowing room for a nuanced mode of storytelling wherein shorthand tableaus articulate entire narratives.
It is as though White were adapting mythic stories with his own actors, sets and costumes, favoring warm hues of orange, red and yellow, with strong lines dissecting objects into constituent geometrical shapes. Throughout, he makes a familiar artistic mode unique and highly individuated. The subjects may be familiar but, re-worked through White's unique style, they take on renewed vitality.
My painting career began at the age of five… it was big and red and smelled like crayons. I had painted a big red fire engine and my teacher was so impressed that she paraded me around the school with it. Thus began my journey as a painter. Upon graduation, in order to eat, I moved to commercial art, producing everything from illustrations for children's books to mural-size collages for corporations. It took some time to realise a life like that wasn't for me. Now, the most recent mural I painted was for a children's cancer ward.
My paintings are from the heart; they reflect pure emotion. I want them to radiate joy and come alive for the viewer. To achieve this spontaneity I don’t do preliminary sketches; I start right out with paint. Fun and happiness is what I'm trying to capture... I want people to feel good.
