Obsidian Drift

Obsidian Drift

From the FAULT LINES Series

“I do not paint stillness. I paint the moment pressure becomes motion.”
— Michael John Valentine

There are moments in nature where tension becomes impossible to contain. Beneath the earth’s surface, tectonic plates grind silently against one another for centuries before releasing unimaginable force. Storm systems gather energy invisibly before erupting across the horizon. Oceans shift beneath darkness while volcanic glass cools into obsidian — sharp, reflective, and born from violence.

Obsidian Drift was created from that emotional and elemental space.

This work is part of my new FAULTLINES series — a body of contemporary abstract paintings exploring fracture, atmospheric movement, pressure, geological memory, and transformation through heavily layered palette-knife architecture and aggressive dimensional overpainting. Unlike representational work that tells the viewer what to see, Obsidian Drift invites the collector into motion itself. The painting becomes less about an object and more about energy suspended in time.

At first glance, the composition feels explosive. Deep carbon blacks collide against fractured ivory passages, molten embers, oxidized metallic tones, and fractured ribbons of light. Yet beneath the aggression is precision. Every movement within the surface was intentionally constructed through layered directional strokes, broken texture fields, and controlled disruption. The painting is not chaotic — it is orchestrated tension.

The title Obsidian Drift emerged naturally during the final stages of completion. Obsidian, volcanic glass formed under intense heat, has always fascinated me because of its duality. It is both elegant and dangerous. Reflective yet opaque. Ancient yet modern. Within this painting, those same contradictions exist simultaneously. Areas of heavy black movement appear to drift through the canvas like cooled volcanic fragments carried by unseen atmospheric currents. The work feels geological, but also aerodynamic — almost as if fragments of earth have entered motion through flight.

That relationship between earth and velocity has quietly influenced much of my recent work. My years studying movement, aviation form, luxury materials, architecture, reflections, and environmental light continue to shape how I approach abstraction. I am less interested in painting static imagery and more interested in creating dimensional experiences where texture, motion, and emotional weight collide.

As with many of my larger contemporary works, Obsidian Drift was developed through multiple stages of reconstruction and overpainting. Thick sculptural applications of paint were repeatedly fractured, buried, re-exposed, and redirected over time. Certain passages intentionally reveal the archaeology of earlier layers beneath the final surface. This process creates a sense of depth and history within the work that cannot be replicated digitally or mechanically. The painting carries evidence of its own evolution.

This physicality is essential to the FAULTLINES series.

Collectors often describe my surfaces as resembling weathered metal, shifting geological formations, storm systems viewed from altitude, or fragmented aerial landscapes. I embrace those interpretations because the work is designed to remain open-ended. The emotional experience changes depending on distance, light, architecture, and the individual viewing it. In daylight, certain passages feel mineral and grounded. Under evening light, metallic undertones emerge and the darker movements become almost cinematic.

What makes Obsidian Drift especially significant within the series is its balance between force and restraint. Some areas feel violent and compressed while others create moments of breath and silence. This tension gives the painting its rhythm. It continuously pulls the eye across the surface without ever fully resolving into certainty. The viewer is left somewhere between destruction and elegance — exactly where I wanted the work to exist.

Every original in the FAULTLINES collection is created as a one-of-one dimensional artwork with extensive hand-applied texture and overpainting. No two surfaces can ever be duplicated. Each piece is personally signed by me and accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity verifying originality and provenance.

My work has evolved through years of experimentation across multiple live studio environments where I continually study texture, layering, movement, and reflective interaction with light. Those spaces have become laboratories for developing a contemporary visual language rooted in energy rather than representation. The FAULTLINES series represents one of the purest expressions of that direction to date.

Obsidian Drift is ultimately about pressure becoming transformation.

It is about fracture creating beauty.

It is about motion emerging from darkness.

And perhaps most importantly, it is about the invisible forces beneath the surface — in nature, in architecture, and within ourselves — that shape who we become long before the world ever sees the result.