Stephen Haigh USA painting, illustration

Stephen Haigh creates these paintings, ending up with less illustration of something and more visual representation of an experience. Or even more accurately, the works record the aftermath of experience, like the fluid-induced wet concrete of an interstate after a car wreck or a muddy Oklahoma State Fairgrounds midway once the rain moves off to Arkansas. Haigh’s art arrives in an uneasiness that never really dissipates, colorful fog over a shotgun wedding. Mixing the artists hand with the vandal’s slash, Haigh easily shares an unfolding expansive landscape of formed color coaxed to life by the viewer’s attention. These are not works to smile and walk by or match to a swath of fabric; the triumphs and fears of our mysterious lives are in there somewhere.