Eight years of my life I had, for many reasons, been actively hating the job I was working.  A singular pursuit, pushed away the present, pushed away the real priorities that would make this life brighter.

And I was making great money doing it.  So with all my extra money I rode an impractically complicated vintage motorcycle.  After working 14 hours for no extra money to make my bosses happy, to make some others higher up better year-end returns I drove my motorcycle to one of the higher points of the city, overlooking an untamable part of the James River.  I never got off the bike, I kicked the stand out and took my helmet off.  The ground was gone, I was in the river.  Not physically or metaphysically; the emotional confusion and disquiet of my spirit drove me to feel the present, to feel the universal energetic vibrations of all this existence together.  To feel that universality and to realize the fool’s labor of trying to impress everyone, to feel powerful in a world where we are concretely the same, to achieve in a job I do not like to ensure I have enough money or power until I don’t feel like a lower head on the totem.

At this point in my life I was a ripe catalyst for change, or to embrace the need for change.  Federico Infante builds the canvases he makes in layers of acrylic and scratches it off, without any pre-planned purpose to invoke subconsciousness.  I think there are unique styles of working, ones that no matter the subject matter, are universally appealing.  They speak to personal experience of the artist while evoking a familiar or personal experience for most viewers.

http://www.federicoinfante.com/about/

Above is his website.  He lives in Richmond, VA!  I hope to see his work in person.