Imagine existing at that moment and place when that first meager sea creature slid out of the ocean with no return ticket, straight into the next phase of evolution. Whether that evolutionary juncture would breed deformities or geniuses is irrelevant. A creature was reaching into the mysterious otherworld, and that is remarkable in itself. Eric White stands at his personal beachhead, oil paints and canvas in tow, making that great leap forward. White's new paintings fuse his signature style and themes of perception and the subconscious with a deeper exploration of the emotional frontier. While White continues to unspool psychological dysfunction and drill holes through the tight perimeter of perceived reality, his current metamorphosis journeys inward, sifting through his emotional architecture into other realms of consciousness. Your new paintings merge things surreal with more palpable, recognizable settings than we have seen before, such as Vietnam and an ice rink. Also, you're using oils now. Are these signposts indicating that we've exited the outer limits of Eric White as illustrator? Sure hope I'm not maturing or anything. I'm feeling drawn into more subdued and intimate realms now I'm not as interested in the garish, weird-for-weird's-sake imagery as I once was. I'm moving away from being so literal and ironic, and into more ambiguous territory, which is more challenging to me, and provides the viewer with greater interpretive leeway.