Look closely at the surface of this painting: some parts seem very flat, while others rise up from the canvas, forming thick and chunky globs of paint. The artist Keltie Ferris used a spray gun to make the curvy, intersecting lines that dominate the composition, like a graffiti artist with spray paint. Then, he carefully built up the grids of thicker paint, allowing the sprayed marks to guide him. The paint extends onto the frame, emphasizing that the painting is not something you look through (like a window, as if it depicts something else) but something you look at.

The artist wants his paintings to feel active and alive: “I do see my paintings as expressions of energy and potential. Like a rock teetering at the top of a hill, it has potential energy,” he has said. For Ferris, that energy partly resides in the contrasts between the different areas of paint. The title, too, carries the energy of contrasts: (E(C(L(I)P)S)E) describes a natural phenomenon while at the same time using the eccentric punctuation often found on the internet and social media.