Rebuilding
Rebuilding
This collection traces a personal journey of reconstruction after rupture.
After 9/11, the path began in a simple farmhouse in upstate New York, where strangers offered unexpected kindness and shelter. From there came the decision to rebuild — moving westward to the oil frontier in Calgary, trading rural quiet for high-rise ambition and the pursuit of empire.
These works follow that arc: from refuge to reinvention, from small beginnings to towering figures of industry. The blackening layers record the hidden psychological cost of rebuilding — the masks of resilience, strength, and forward motion we wear in order to keep going.
I have added a delicate grid structure across many of these paintings. The grid symbolizes the frameworks of order, discipline, and ambition we construct in order to survive and rise again. My carbon drips and blackening layers then actively break, erode, and dissolve this grid — visually enacting the unmasking process itself. This tension between structure and dissolution is central to the Rebuilding series.
This is the mask of the self we construct in order to survive and rise again.
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The Farm House Carbon pencil and blackening watercolors made from captured industrial carbon, with inks on paper mounted to canvas 2018 - 2024
The journey of rebuilding began here — in a modest farmhouse in upstate New York, where local people offered shelter and quiet generosity after 9/11. This painting holds the first tentative steps back into life. The blackening layers settle gently, like the weight of memory that lingers even in refuge.
The mask of: Vulnerability seeking safety.
Calgary Carbon pencil and blackening watercolors made from captured industrial carbon, with inks on paper mounted to canvas· 2019 - 2025
From the farmhouse came the decision to rebuild on the oil frontier. The vast, open plains of Calgary represent both opportunity and safe isolation — the moment of choosing ambition over, what is known. The blackening layers stretch across the landscape like the long shadow of what was left behind.
The mask of: The frontier self — determined and rootless.
Building Carbon pencil and blackening watercolors made from captured industrial carbon, with inks on paper mounted to canvas· 2015- 2025
Dark Farm Carbon pencil and blackening watercolors made from captured industrial carbon, with inks on paper mounted to canvas · 2019 - 2025
The transition into vertical ambition. Leaving the open land for the steel and glass of high-rises, this work captures the psychological shift from rural refuge back to urban reinvention. The blackening layers climb the structure like accumulated pressure and resolve.
The mask of: Ambition and the drive to rise.
Even in the act of rebuilding, the shadow remains. This painting returns to the farmhouse landscapes within , revealing the darker psychological undercurrents that travel with us no matter how far we go. The skull looms as a quiet reminder that masks of progress cannot fully hide what we carry inside.
The mask of: The darkness we bring with us when we try to start over.
Oil Train Carbon pencil and blackening watercolors made from captured industrial carbon, with inks on paper mounted to canvas· 2019 - 2025
The machinery of the new life. Industrial movement, power, and the hidden costs running through the landscape. This work sits at the heart of the oil frontier — where ambition meets consequence in long, black lines of progress.
The mask of: The industrial self — powerful yet stained.
Merchant, Portrait of Billionaire Li Ka Shing Carbon pencil and blackening watercolors made from captured industrial carbon, with inks on paper mounted to canvas· 2019-2025
The dream of empire. Inspired by towering builders and empire makers of landscape, this painting represents the aspiration to create something lasting from the ruins. Yet even here, the blackening layers remind us that every empire is built on both vision and shadow.
The mask of: The empire builder we strive to become.
Thank you for experiencing these works.
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Next Collection → Poisoned Intimacy
Studio visits, or related works: blairaiken@raincage.com
Dark yet hopeful.