Something happened when you saw this. What was it?
Out of Darkness · 2023
Scratched Black Mirror
Available · in the studio, Phoenix
The mirror that has been through something — near-black holding the surface that reflected too much and shows the evidence.
Scratched Black Mirror (2023) is an abstract reflection on distortion — a painting that captures the feeling of seeing oneself only in fragments. This 72 x 48 inch mixed media work from the Out of Darkness Collection evokes both silence and disruption, stillness and struggle.
The painting’s surface is a deep, almost lightless black — layered in matte acrylic and epoxy resin. Across it, scratches are carved, not painted. These marks shimmer slightly in angled light, revealing their presence only when you lean in. Some scratches are shallow, others more violent, cutting into the underlayers like memories refusing to fade.
I created Scratched Black Mirror as a meditation on introspection — not the curated kind, but the kind that unsettles. The painting is not meant to reflect you. It reflects what is hidden behind your own surface: the thoughts that won’t smooth over.
This piece resonates with the conceptual tension of Rashid Johnson, whose works often scratch into material to unearth deeper psychological or cultural truths. Like Johnson, I see the scratch not as damage, but as record — of existence, resistance, survival.
Scratched Black Mirror is not about darkness. It’s about what happens when we try to see clearly and realize the surface itself is fractured.
As part of the Out of Darkness Collection, this painting stands as a mirror for emotional erosion — not destroyed, but revealed.
Where to see it. In person at RituStudio, Phoenix, by appointment. Represented by Jarrow & Goodman, Los Angeles.
The space it needs
- Wall
- At least 8 ft wide
- Ceiling
- 9 ft or more
- Light
- Low ambient light amplifies luminous passages — dark-wall installation ideal
- Daylight
- Matte black resists glare better than most dark surfaces, yet bright sun still lifts it toward gray. Out of direct light, the silver scratches and ash gray marks read sharply against a black that stays black.
Lives best in
Hotel lobby 5/5
At lobby scale, the epoxy resin surface reads as architectural material rather than painting, commanding the sightline from the entrance and rewarding the closer look a returning guest will take on the third or fourth pass.
Living room 4/5
Scratched Black Mirror earns its place in a living room that can hold a 4×6 ft painting without crowding it, where the silver scratch lines catch evening light and give the matte black field a slow, shifting life across the hours.
Details
- Size
- 4 × 6 ft (W × H)
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Year
- 2023
- Collection
- Out of Darkness
- Palette
- Matte Black · Epoxy Resin · Silver Scratch · Ash Gray
- Weight
- About 45 lb
- Ready
- In the studio; delivery 8–12 weeks
Its ArtGram
ArtGram.Trillium
- Texture1
- Form2
- Colour range1
- Palette4.4
- Contrast4.3
- Abstraction Quotient4.5
