T. Dylan Moore And his Eyes Darken’d by too great a Light, oil on paper, a portrait of Ovid’s Phaeton
The world of American artist T. Dylan Moore is a place of fantastic wonderful dreams, articulated in atelier style and a certain masterful contemporary beauty. Much of his work is connected to the literary tradition of the epic. Yet, what makes this work stand apart is an uncanny ability to make his viewers feel as if they have come upon a series of life studies – veiled in the dreamy sfumato of mythological tales.
This rings true whether the work is in grand scale or dramatic form such a fiery landscape or an Icarus like descent or alternately a naturalist botanist study of a nude draped in all the symbology of the insect world and animal creatures. Indeed, much of Moore’s work includes themes of natural life cycles, birth, totemic animals, hybrid creatures, dream-scapes, flora, and fauna. The oeuvre is contemplative and powerful, as well as a bearing a hint of the mythical. These combinations and choices are intended not to reveal the intimate symbolism of the artist’s hear, but rather to produce work that evokes emotion.draws mostly from his own emotional life, the natural world and a connection with systems of mythology. It is “the structure of the myths themselves, and the relationship between the earthly and the spiritual that relates to the way that I approach art.”
Moore is inspired by the tensions between man and the natural world and many of his works borrow and expand on the rich and wonderous narratives of Ovid’s Metamorphoses such as Hence we are Nature.
T. Dylan Moore Hence we derive our Nature; born to bear, oil on canvas
T. Dylan Moore It doesn’t matter, graphite on paper
Moore’s images of women are quite beautiful, and seem symbolic of generative power, complexity, and sexuality, in a world where very plastic and artificial images of womanhood are omnipresent. The artist notes he uses his friends as models, and wants to show an affection about his subjects. A certain proud vulnerability creates a palpable tension in the portraits.
T. Dylan Moore Like A Forest Scorched, I Will Be Reborn, graphite on paper
T. Dylan Moore Butterflies, graphite on paper
T. Dylan Moore Conservation of Energy, graphite on paper
T. Dylan Moore Separation Anxiety: Or, Why Did I Stay So Still?, graphite on paper
The artist’s self-portraits have a complexity of emotion as well, but seem less venerative, and more critical, such as Separation Anxiety, a self-portrait that approaches the discomfort found in the familiar.
T. Dylan Moore Detail of Follow me to Somewhere, oil on canvas
Follow me to Somewhere responds to humankind’s relationship with the natural environment, an epic picture depicting the foreboding immolation of natural beauty in the search for perfection and the greed for natural resources.
T. Dylan Moore Follow me to Somewhere, oil on canvas
Learn more about T. Dylan Moore’s work on his website. or via Facebook and Behance.
