Color, Energy, and Growth in Dave Popino's Art

Featured image: Abscission, Dave Popino, 2024, mixed media, 21 x 21 in. / 53.34 x 53.34 cm.

Dave Popino creates dynamic mixed media collages that explore the rhythms of growth, transformation, and energy through layered textures and radiant color. 

Dave Popino creates layered mixed media collages that explore nature, energy, and transformation through vibrant color, rich texture, and expressive abstraction.

Working with torn paper, fibrous materials, and carefully orchestrated compositions, Popino builds abstract works that evoke both natural processes and emotional landscapes. In Let It Grow, Here Comes Sunshine, and The Other One, expanding forms radiate outward from hidden centers, suggesting cycles of renewal, light, and emergence. Together, these works demonstrate how abstraction can communicate the vitality of nature and the unseen forces that shape both the physical world and human experience.

Let It Grow, Dave Popino, 2025, mixed media, 29.5. x 29.5 in. / 74.93 x 74.93 cm.

Let It Grow celebrates the quiet power of natural growth through a vibrant composition dominated by layered greens, earthy browns, and luminous golds. Arranged across four panels, textured bands appear to radiate outward from an unseen central point, creating a visual rhythm that suggests roots spreading beneath the earth or foliage reaching toward light. Torn paper edges and richly layered surfaces reinforce the organic character of the work, allowing texture to become as expressive as color. Popino's restrained yet varied palette captures the complexity of living ecosystems while emphasizing renewal and interconnectedness. The composition invites viewers to contemplate growth as a continuous process unfolding beneath the visible surface of the natural world.

Here Comes Sunshine, Dave Popino, 2026, paper collage on canvas, 25.5 x 25.5 in. / 64.77 x 64.77 cm.

In Here Comes Sunshine, Popino shifts from cool natural tones to an explosion of radiant reds, oranges, and golds that evoke the warmth and movement of sunlight. Diagonal bands sweep across the four-panel composition like solar rays expanding beyond the edges of the canvas, generating a powerful sense of motion and energy. Fibrous threads woven throughout the surface create tactile complexity, while layered paper collage introduces subtle variations in texture that reward close observation. The work balances intensity with harmony, transforming abstract color into a visual experience of heat, optimism, and renewal. Rather than depicting the sun directly, Popino captures its emotional and physical presence through dynamic abstraction.

The Other One, Dave Popino, 2025, paper collage on canvas, 16.75 x 16.75 in. / 42.5 x 42.5 cm.

The Other One explores transformation through a rich interplay of deep magentas, purples, crimson, and glowing ember oranges. The layered composition appears to converge toward a dark central core, suggesting a process of emergence where destruction and creation exist simultaneously. Dense fibrous textures and torn paper fragments create remarkable depth, encouraging the eye to move continuously across the surface while discovering new details within each quadrant. The contrast between luminous color and shadowy forms evokes organic decay, volcanic energy, and the birth of new life from unseen origins. Popino presents abstraction as a living process, where change is neither linear nor predictable but constantly unfolding beneath the surface.

Across Let It Grow, Here Comes Sunshine, and The Other One, Dave Popino demonstrates a compelling ability to transform paper collage into expressive explorations of nature, energy, and renewal. His layered textures, radiant color palettes, and carefully structured compositions create immersive abstract environments that evoke both physical landscapes and emotional experiences. Through the interplay of material, movement, and light, Popino reveals the invisible forces of growth and transformation that connect the natural world with human creativity. Together, these works celebrate abstraction as a powerful language for expressing life's continual evolution.