Between Horizons
Joe Lukas
My practice begins with an interest in how memory alters our understanding of place. I am drawn to landscapes that are experienced repeatedly and remembered imperfectly: coastlines revisited over many years, rooms that once felt familiar, roads observed through a moving window, and natural spaces transformed by weather or time. Rather than depicting these environments literally, I reconstruct them through color, gesture, texture, and erasure. Each painting develops through a gradual process of accumulation. I apply thin washes of pigment, broad fields of color, and more concentrated marks, allowing each layer to respond to what came before it. Some passages remain visible, while others are covered, scraped back, softened, or partially removed. This repeated cycle mirrors the way memories are formed. Certain details remain vivid, others fade, and unrelated experiences occasionally merge into a new internal landscape. My paintings often occupy the space between recognition and uncertainty. A horizontal line may suggest a horizon, a pale opening may resemble distant light, or a dense cluster of marks may recall vegetation, architecture, or moving water. These references are intentionally incomplete. I want the work to provide enough familiarity for the viewer to enter, but enough openness for personal associations to emerge. Color plays an important role in establishing this emotional territory. Deep blues, mineral greens, weathered neutrals, and earthen reds are drawn from direct observation, but they are adjusted according to memory and feeling. I am less interested in reproducing the exact color of a place than in finding the color of its psychological presence.