John DeFaro

visit BIG LAWN Project 

Green Paintings, Layering years. 

My Green Paintings bridge past and present, layering personal experience into a visual language of authenticity. This evolving collection fuses monochrome and minimalist styles with refined, textured compositions, each piece exploring line, and above all, color.

I draw from environmental, cultural, and personal memory. Crisscrossed strokes echo my youth mowing lawns in ritual grids, a metaphor for conformity, appearance, and the pressure to ‘measure up.’ Each brushstroke overlays 39 coats of paint, marking the passage of time and honoring my 39 years as an HIV survivor. The process is meditative, healing, and responsive to the crisis’s emotional climate.

The subject matter, nature, emerges from what I’m drawn to and find more healing in: landscapes, flowers, and reclaimed organic materials. These works challenge the American Dream of manicured lawns, exposing their ecological cost, especially via fossil-fueled upkeep.

During the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, I recalled summers on Eastern Long Island, NY, and a green picnic table beneath my grandparents’ maple tree, layered annually with glossy paint. That memory now anchors my studio practice. My garden, my paintings, and this green are where I gather, connect, and continue the work of care, for self, for others, for the Earth.