I create drawings and oil paintings depicting ambiguous forms that emerge from an achromatic abstract environment. These skin-like forms become characters that portray human behavior guided by instinct and desire.
I utilize specific characteristics of drawing and painting media to illustrate the gradual formation of these beings. I begin with an achromatic base composed of lines and masses of in charcoal. I see these environments as metaphorical storms of both the nothingness and chaos of human thought. Charcoal is the medium of ancient human’s first marks and is symbolic of the perpetuity of human instinct. I apply paint as a literal opaque skin on top of these flat charcoal environments resulting in a hybrid surface of both paint and charcoal.
I am drawn to the tactility of skin and fascinated by paint’s ability to be utilized as a chromatic covering. “Covering” can have a devious connotation of hiding something malicious. Conversely, the act of smoothing paint can be seen as nurturing, as in the application of a salve. Voluptuous cherubic flesh influence my palette of what I call “pink piglet” skin. Therefore, skin seen here is from my conflicted perspective of humans: soft, warm and sensual but also inflamed. My work is a process of balancing the understanding of human behavior and maintaining love for humanity.
I like to control the visual experience of where the known meets the unknown and I am intrigued with how a viewer perceives shapes and colors that stimulate connections with their experience. To me, the process of abstraction from unfamiliar to familiar—and thus the interpretation—is like the process of becoming aware a truth of which you were previously unaware.
Lambert obtained a BFA and an MA from the University of North Texas and an MFA in Studio Art/Painting from the University of Dallas.