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Artist's Statement
ARTIST STATEMENT to accompany Nostalgia & Surprise exhibit
Nostalgia & Surprise
I grew up in a photographic studio, slept in my bassinet in the darkroom, on my
grandmothers knee “helped” her to slosh exposed paper in the developer, and
together we watched the images come up.
My maternal grandparents were
“studio photographers”. We lived in a small town. They documented important
events: weddings, fires, funerals, graduations, and births. They developed
photographs for everyone from miles around. I saw, watched and learned
everything one needs to know about images around the same time I could recite
the alphabet by myself. These are the roots of my art practice.
I paint what pleases my eye.
Visually I am always playing
with images, overlapping them, taking them apart and putting them ‘back’
together in various combinations. I like to flip through magazines rip out
images, play with their contexts, and make them make new meanings, and then use
the collages as starting points for paintings. I also love to photograph then
use the photos as reference for paintings.
My love of producing the
portrait is inherited from my grandparents as well.
And always when I am painting I
am engaged with my materials and techniques; the more I paint, the more the
paint teaches me about painting. The more I paint, the more I want to paint.
Painting is not a choice, it is
necessity.
On the matter of subject &
form; Expressionist vs. Abstract
In my understanding
expressionist artwork is based that which we call “real”: people, places and
things. However there are the departures from ‘reality of
perspective, time, and memory to be considered These departures cause the model
to register, in the mind of the artist, as a reference point. Even when the
model is sitting for the portrait and is present, the painter may fall into a
reverie, a trance of concentration as the painting is produced. Consequently
expressionist work is about painting remnants, memories. Though not melancholic,
I’ve a penchant for nostalgia, which continues to drive me to paint
expressionist work.
Then there is the abstract
painting. This is a freer but also a form that demands more concentration from
me. It is an emotional form similar in practice to writing a poem in that it is
spontaneous, full of spit and vigor.
Painting the abstract is painting that which is not (that is, has not, previously been made manifest). Though this statement itself is nearly a lie since every abstract has a beginning, a starting point somewhere, even if it that starting point is the artist, or the paint. Painting abstract is surprising – one never knows who or what will visit (through the brush onto the canvas) and make them/it self/ves known . Often I feel I am meeting and energy or being I didn’t know existed before. I can only compare it to entering a beautiful labyrinthine house in a dream, wherein there is a surprise around every corner.
Painting abstract is never boring.
Copyright © 2009 Deb Wiles