The eight SOBs are getting ready for our May show at Anton Art Center in Mt.Clemens, Michigan. We will have about a half-dozen paintings each, plus a "history room" that will show the background of our group.
The Art Center will also have on display a book with our various artist statements, so all of us are writing new ones or updating old ones. The following is what I'm using this time around. I always think that writing statements makes me sound pompous.
Maybe that's the point?
“Art” should be a verb, not a noun!
I prepare to paint by stretching my watercolor
paper: I soak it, then staple it to a
backing, and allow it to dry taut and
clean. The process is magical for me, pregnant with possibility and hope. There are infinite possibilities ahead of me
with this sheet of paper. It may be a
failure, destined to be torn for collage, or gessoed over, or scrubbed, or just
recycled. Perhaps it’s destined to be a personal “masterpiece”, a work to give me joy
and confidence for years to come.
Before I’ve even made
my first marks, from the moment I’ve decided on subject matter, the possibilities and options begin to
narrow. My choices become more limited,
driven by previous choices, previous marks. (wait a minute… is that not exactly like
life?)
The total fascination
of art for me is that journey, from the first moment with the blank sheet of
paper, to the ending, whatever it may be (successful or not). Decisions of subject, color, design, texture
all provide my escape from life’s more difficult decisions and choices.
I generally paint using
traditional watercolor techniques and materials, with recognizable subject
matter. I often enhance and expand on my subject matter by obscuring the actual
original environment using dramatic value contrasts and patterns.
