With Everybody Stay Calm, a 9×12 inch oil on paper painting, I wanted to explore the ironic tension between external chaos and an attempt to maintain internal order. Through this painting, I sought to capture a frantic, high-energy moment of emotional turmoil, utilizing playful, gestural brushwork, raw line movement, and a vibrant, uninhibited color palette.
Created as an original oil on paper painting measuring 9×12 inches, the piece features a chaotic groundwork of energetic reds, olive greens, and warm yellows, disrupted by thick, vertical bars of opaque white, dark purple, and mint green. I applied bold impasto lines and loose, sweeping strokes across a muted lavender-gray field to give the oil medium a spontaneous, visceral rhythm that speaks to panic, humor, and controlled unrest.
