A film by Eric Minh Swenson.

My paintings are inspired by an intensely personal introspective journey of life, from the ever-changing complexities of love, loss, birth, and death. The context of my work is what I call, “Absence and Presence” pertaining to how someone or something can be physically gone, but the essence still remains. Capturing the physical mixed with spirituality on canvas. My application of paint is an extension of that thought process. Continuously building up and tearing down, layer upon layer, adding and subtracting. A visceral dance between the conscious and the unconscious until the emotion is expressed. Painting the essence of something rather than a depiction. My message is about the human condition, that joy is sweetened by the memory of the pain endured to reach it.

From a VoyageLA online article: http://voyagela.com/interview/art-life-mark-acetelli/