Untitled, 2022
Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches
Artist Reception: December 17th, 4-6 pm
In 1993, I bought a camera. That decision remains a mystery. That simple act lead to a thirty-year journey that exists to this day. It gave me employment, and opened doors into cultures, lives, and world events I may never have seen. I have worked in dozens of countries, covering social issues, disasters, and war. Through my lens I witnessed the best and worst in humanity. In 2012, I published my first book of non-fiction, All The Kennedy’s Are Dead, based on preparations for a trip to Chad, to document the mass of refugees flooding into the central African nation from war torn Sudan. In 2017, I published my second book, Shimmy Shimmy Black Girl, the story of the trip itself.
In February of 2020 I was in Laos, sitting in a bar along the Mekong. Looking out at the boats moving across the glowing water, the hue of colors washed over me. I made a decision. I would return to Boston and paint. Much like the mysterious camera purchase, I had recently begun buying art supplies. With each purchase of a picture frame, I would buy a tube of paint. Why? That did not matter. One simple act always leads to another. Buy a camera? Endless possibilities. New paths bring new energy, and like the early days of my photography, I could feel that coming on. Travel has always had an effect on me, it has been a large part of my life. In that bar, with the sun going down, I realized painting could be an extension of my photographic work. I didn’t know where it would go, or if I would even have the time. Either way, I had a desire to put paint on canvas.
On the last day of February, I returned Boston to find the world in chaotic change. Uncertainty everywhere. Here is where I would have taken my camera into the streets. Instead, I began to paint. With each brush stroke, I realized I was documenting the worlds that I had walked, the places I had seen, the emotions I had felt. If my photos are marks in time, my paintings fill everything in between.
Darren McCollester
Boston, Massachusetts
November 2022
