Doomscroll

noun /ˈduːm.skroʊ.lɪŋ/ :(humorous) “the act of spending an excessive amount of time reading large quantities of negative news online, even though that news is saddening, disheartening, or depressing.”

Nick began a new series of paintings just months before Hurricane Ian hit, not knowing how much impact the series would have on him nor what Ian would have on the series. Most of the materials are found items, which he thought he would never have enough of. After the storm hit there was more material than he knew what to really do with. And from that lived experience of surviving the storm an idea for a show was formed. Stranded for a week without service or power, Nick begged for the ability to just get on social media and scroll for hours to take his mind off of what had just happened, but what he ended up with was a doom scroll!. Once he was back home, Nick spent hours online saving memes and watching comedy videos to take his mind off things and felt at peace. That peace was brief as he began to travel around the area and take photographs and find the materials he wanted for his paintings. He found peace in helping people and not in doom scrolling. Every part of that experience and the current state of our area of Florida has gone into making these pieces, objects from friends’ homes, personal effects that were both damaged and saved, paint that survived the flood water, images taken of the area, mementos of times past, are all combined with the thing that first gave him peace after it all; memes.