MICHAEL REAFSNYDER
Reafsnyder's layered paintings transmit a genuine sense of the rare artist immersed in what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi termed a flow state, where one finds the self enveloped in a sense of joy, losing track of time, and achieving optimal experience. Csikszentmihalyi described achieving the optimal experience as "...a sense of exhilaration, a deep sense of enjoyment that is long cherished and that becomes a landmark in memory for what life should be like." [1]
In an era of seeking instant gratification and generative artificial intelligence, planting its seeds of fear of displacement in fields far beyond the image makers of the arts, Reafsnyder's works remind us that the aspirational role of painting today can be what it has been for thousands of years: a mechanism to express connections with the sublime, be they ecstatic emotional states, the gods, or spirit realms. He says that "when I go through intense periods of painting, kind of, the world slips away and I get seduced by this world that's evolving and materializing on the canvas." [2] Academic Susan Magsamen, in her book, Your Brain on Art, writes of similar possibilities, "When you make art and you don't know what's going to happen, you're involved in the mystery that life really is." [3]
Reafsnyder's streaks and splatters of paint leave maps of the unknown behind that, if we could follow them, suggest they might lead us to the places humans have sought for millennia, a path towards self-transcendence. Telling of the flow states that Reafsnyder's paintings seem to record is the common acknowledgment that one achieves such a state by intrinsic motivation as opposed to society's external rewards.
The artist's paintings speak of someone who for moments of their making forgot not just about society's rewards but about society altogether and for the betterment of those who see his artworks as they call to mind 17th century philosopher Blaise Pascal's suggestion that, "All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone." [4] With his paintings' thick layers acting as an abyss in which we can follow our emotions and wander through thought, we can get delightfully lost in a room alone and perhaps find ourselves.
His paintings blend elements of Gerhard Richter's Abstract Picture artworks with Pollock and de Kooning's energy. Reafsnyder speaks of his inspiration from Abstract Expressionism, yet not being weighed down by its post-war angst; instead, he sees his painting as a place of joy and pleasure. In the place of Abstract Expressionism's indirect support from the CIA to illustrate, amongst other things, what was possible in a capitalistic society [5][6], Reafsnyder reminds us of what is possible today in a similar society, but in a very different way. He exchanges today's fallacy of efficiency for the magic of making with one's hands, without a predetermined destination, to celebrate an exuberance of being amidst his kaleidoscope of color. Were it not for his skill, the paintings could easily collapse into the chaos with which they skim the surface.
The artist's use of his hands to paint evokes the raw connection between the creative medium and the self of cave painters and uninhibited children. Paintings like Beagle Break (2025) illustrate what it looks like when one can paint with the freedom and joy of a child, yet the equanimity of a master.
Beyond his hands, Reafsnyder relies primarily upon palette knives and, to a lesser extent, found objects that unveil an immediacy of emotion, such as in Pastry Store (2025) and the unbridled intensity of color with its ability to influence our mood, such as in Rippin Good (2025).
Works like Jet Stream (2023) pass through the spectrum of greens and blues, mixing with white along the way to relate a process in which the artist is loosely guiding his painting until being guided by it. When this ends, the world that seduces the artist begins evolving and materializing on the canvas.
With so much impasto paint collecting on the palette knife, an intense flipping motion of the wrist towards the canvas from a few feet away splatters entropic dollops over the streaks of paint, such as in Chop Shop (2025). Reafsnyder impossibly layers a multitude of tinted colors in Summer Glide (2024), his streaks of cake icing thick colors’ uniform direction interrupted by paint scraped from the artwork, revealing elements of what came before, returning at times nearly to the canvas itself.
The artist's canvases both record and evoke emotion over an attempt to convey direct meaning, similar to Abstract Expressionist action painters of the post-World War II era. Summer Jam's works through the artist's use of his hands to apply paint, the paints unplanned movement and thickened formations convey an instinctual passion that invites viewers to stare off into their embers of emotion calling to mind how prehistoric cave painters whose painting, while meant to be seen, were also made to be experienced in the dark depths of a cave, acting as a portal to an inner world that both the creator and the participant could experience. The prehistoric participants were those who dared walk into the cave, risking discomfort, to find something deeper within. Great thinkers have long proposed that places of seeming abstract nothingness are significant sources of inspiration.
Carl Jung noted that, "Leonardo da Vinci wrote in his Notebooks: 'It should not be hard for you to stop sometimes and look into the stains of walls, or ashes of a fire, or clouds, or mud, or like places in which … you may find really marvelous ideas.'" [7] Reafsnyder's paintings embody such places that foster marvelous ideas, which can allow for a deep sense of joy amidst his painterly voids, blending a landmark in memory of what life should be like with the mystery that life really is.
Citations:
1. "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive." Internet Archive, 25 Oct. 2021, archive.org/details/flow-the-psychology-of-optimal-experience-pdfdrive.
2. McEnery, Miles. "ARTnews | in Conversation With Michael Reafsnyder." Vimeo, 13 July 2025, vimeo.com/383828033?fl=pl&fe=ti.
3. Magsamen, Susan, and Ross, Ivy. Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us. United Kingdom, Random House Publishing Group, 2023.
4. Pascal, Blaise. Pensées. United States, Dover Publications, 2013.
5. Cockcroft, Eva. "Abstract Expressionism, Weapon of the Cold War." Pollock and After: The Critical Debate, edited by Francis Frascina, 1st ed., Harper & Row, 1985, pp. 125–133.
6. Saunders, Frances Stonor. “Modern Art Was CIA ‘weapon’ | the Independent.” The Independent, 21 Oct. 1995, www.independent.co.uk/news/world/modern-art-was-cia-weapon-1578808.html.
7. "Man And His Symbols : Carl Gustav Jung : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive." Internet Archive, 1964, archive.org/details/B-001-004-443-ALL.
