About This Work

Title:"John Brown addressing the Concord assembly (with Thoreau and Emerson in attendance)" Artist: Derek Overfield This painting depicts an actual event in American history. In 1857 the controversial anti-slavery warrior, John Brown, lectured on the abolition of slavery at an assembly in Concord, Massachusetts - the home of both Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. The event proved to be a turning point in Thoreau and Emerson's lives, the anti-slavery movement and the nation as a whole. With his speech, Brown was able to convince the previously pacifistic authors that only through violence could the nation be rid of slavery. Newly inspired, the two men then introduced Brown to wealthy backers that would fund his violent campaigns. Thoreau strongly defended Brown up to and following his death after his failed raid on Harper's Ferry (an event that nudged the nation closer to Civil War), even penning his own Concord lecture "A Plea for Captain John Brown". In this painting, I sought to capture the passion and deep conviction that Brown must have exuded to make such a lasting impression on two of that era's greatest minds and change the course of a nation. Above is a semi-abstract figurative work done from life. The work is completed using a subtractive/additive method utilizing latex paint. The piece is sold unstretched. It can be restretched either inexpensively at a frame shop or DIY and presented in a gallery wrap style. It ships in a sturdy tube, rolled. Statement "...and around his head the fair goddess set thick a golden cloud, and forth from the man made blaze a gleaming fire... there he stood and shouted... and when they heard the brazen voice of the son of Aeacus the hearts of all were dismayed." - Homer, The Iliad My work is influenced by the classical and the romantic, the archaic and the modern - and strives for the monumental, divine and quietly brutal. Through paint and line I seek to capture the light of existence, that "gleaming fire", as well as to portray its gravity. I strive to celebrate the figure, its mysterious power and charisma. Like a purging fire, I hope to burn away the ornament, the unnecessary, in order to expose the purity beneath.