picasso exhibit and artist statement

   Going to the Picasso exhibit is similar to visiting family or old friends.  Many you look forward to seeing, some surprise you at another encounter, others you move by quickly and many delight you with verve and invention.  You know the various wives, the women running across the sand, still life studies piled up or fractured, his ink/wash and graphic work  - but still the out and out gusto of paint and composition wow you once again.

 

   There was no way to visit with those old friends intimately while surrounded by a diverse and large crowd in the museum.  A second look is necessary.  From the early collection in Barcelona to the larger Picasso museum in Paris - and all over the world in magazines, posters pottery..Picasso prevails. He is a show off, he is subtle - let's face it - he  is a major spark of 20th century art.

 

I was drawn to his his smaller works, especially a series of aquatints of Dora Mar containing a variation of form,color and multifacited view of the face.  Also a lithograph of Women of Algiers after Delacroix  showed his draughtmanship - in fact, I return to the strength of Picasso's graphic works.  Like Goya, there is great strength in these pieces.  I anticipate a return visit with Pablo.

 

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Artist Statement

 

Art is a process that often presents an unexpected outcome when one carries on a conversation with the canvas.

 

My work encompasses a variety of subjects...figurative, realistic, imaginary and often with a social comment.  Materials at hand ..and I keep an eclectic assortment around me....offer me the tools to find my way to a solution.

 

The poet, Horace, said the "Purpose of art is to inform and delight", which for me is an impetus to do art.  I also take the advice of Paul Klee, who said that  "art does not reproduce the visible: rather it makes visible." This is something that informs my work because  I do not make an exact replica of objects but work to find the essence of the object or  idea.  There are numerous artists that I have looked to over the years...Piero della Francesco for his classic calm and overall clarity of color; Vuillard with his subtle patterns, deceptively simple compositions which evoke strong emotion; Modgliani's color; the power of expressionist color; and finally Goya for things dark and light--especially his black paintings of the "Quinto del Sordo" and his social comments on war.

 

Art is hard work but offers an infinite scope of joy- frustration- and satisfaction.