Inflection Point
This may be the first time some of you are recognizing me as a painter. The collage series that I have been working on for about a year, The Shudder of Meaning, now totals 22 pieces. Simultaneously I was developing three larger canvases, utilizing abstracted landscapes. I had received some great feedback and advice from some artist friends in my critique group during a studio visit. It was right after that meeting that I decided to take some basic ideas and run with them.
I began to see a correlation between what I was putting down on the canvas and the more recent collage work. As those last collages became more abstracted, very much about ‘the edges of things’, the slight overlapping, small fragments nested in corners became the vernacular that I found aesthetically pleasing.
I like the term ‘inflection point’ for a number of reasons. It refers to the point of a curve at which a change in the direction of curvature occurs; ironically, a turning point. In an interview recently, Barack Obama observed that the country is at an inflection point in the wake of the assassinations of Charlie Kirk, and Melissa Hortman and her spouse.
Given the contrast between my use of right angles and horizontal and vertical lines, and the more expressive mark-making I’ve employed, the term’s reference to change is what ultimately grabbed my attention. And change we must, as artists, continually, for own good, and the good our work brings to others. I’m at an inflection point myself, personally and professionally, but that’s a story for another day.
Brad Terhune
October 2025