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About This Work
“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”
—Samuel Beckett
This painting takes Irish writer Samuel Beckett’s famous words and translates them into pattern, colour, and rhythm. Using a typographic system I created, I separate, repeat and layer the words until they form a dense, interwoven composition. This is how I picture the cycle of trying, failing, and beginning again.
I’m looking at the link between effort and repetition, and how repetition builds weight and momentum. The colour palette starts with calm blues at the top and moves to vibrant reds and oranges towards the bottom. This shift in colour resembles the feeling of things warming up and getting energetic, messy, and maybe slightly unhinged the longer you keep going. It’s a familiar trajectory! Perseverance can feel repetitive and frustrating, but it’s generally full of momentum.
By embedding a familiar quote inside a busy composition I am paying tribute to all of those building blocks of effort that keep things moving forward, even if it’s just at a shuffle.