Jay Setchim

About the Artist

I like humans a lot, but we tend to not really like each other in real life though. I’m not sure why we all came to this earth, but at some point, I hope we all realize that we are here together and on the same team. So, in my paintings I use eyes and hands to remind us of our connection to each other. As we use technology more and more, we get to look into each other’s lives, yet in real life we hardly connect. We have unplugged from each other and lost the connection. My human paintings are just that, humans that are looking back at you, searching to connect; staring to see if you notice them as they notice you.

The beings that I paint are humans trying to find themselves, their humanity and the connection to it all. Trying to find their humanness that has gone missing by creating it themselves. They blur the lines between where we are and where we should be, between body and soul; where does the skeleton end and the human begin?

About the Art

My art is about the dichotomy of life as I sort through it. I feel the pulsation of opposites pulling at each other and yet working together; of male and female, of life and death, happy and sad, loved and alone. We cannot have just one of these feelings. We need one to feel the other. When I paint, I close my eyes; it starts dark and then the images come forth as light. I love to see this as I create, and it fills the works with emotional charge.