Artist's Statement: "Back in 2012/2013 I was making these complex assemblage pieces using foam core slats with oil, wax, tar, chalkboard paint and chalk, all kinds of materials. I felt sort of like Paul Klee, just going all over the place with the qualities of the various media. These were very nicely framed in custom shadow box frames, and I kept a couple back for myself, of which this is one." 

“Lyman’s work evolves restlessly, with the common elements generally being deft and unusual color choices that balance assonance and dissonance, and vestiges of the hand and facture purposely left in the paintings. The negative space is often so meticulously worked that it’s almost as if the objects – usually simple shapes – are there as much to complement the background as vice versa. Despite the often bold colors there is an elegance about his paintings that prevents them from being either loud or decorative." 

Artbeit Zeitschrift 

“His paintings are a refreshing departure from the current abstract art world’s seemingly endless parade of fields of color with scribbles providing form, a style that is easily mimicked and has become a sort of “safe,” accessible go-to. There are confident decisions in these paintings appearing as commitments of strongly delineated forms and unexpected collisions of color that give the work a visceral, confident and playful soul, increasingly missing from contemporary expressionist abstraction. They are the paintings of a real painter rather than a decorative artist.” 

ArtSeen, 2018