Palimpsest of Tides

Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Palimpsest of Tides is a layered abstract that evokes a weathered seascape or an ancient manuscript shaped by water and time. Horizontal bands of muted teal, slate blue, soft grey, and faded rose drift across the surface, suggesting a distant horizon and the slow rhythm of tide and breath.
The surface is densely worked with incised marks, symbols, and fragments of handwritten text that appear and dissolve within the paint. These ghostly inscriptions suggest a record of memory, thought, or navigation, inviting prolonged looking as hidden narratives emerge beneath the shifting, tidal surface.

Inspiration:
This painting was inspired by the idea of the palimpsest - surfaces that carry multiple histories at once, where earlier marks remain faintly visible beneath newer layers. I was drawn to parallels between ocean tides and memory: both erase and reveal, conceal and return. The embedded symbols and text fragments reflect personal and collective traces, like messages offered to the sea and altered by time.

Artist Statement :
My work explores layering, erasure, and mark-making as metaphors for memory and time. Working in acrylic, I build surfaces through washes, scraping, carving, and intuitive gestures, allowing earlier layers to remain partially visible. In Palimpsest of Tides, I wanted the canvas to feel like a living document - holding residue of thought, prayer, calculation, and feeling. Each layer becomes a quiet accumulation of presence, loss, and remembrance.