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| Artist Statement |
| I have always wondered just how I would fit into the world of art........
There are the major creative types such as Picasso or Pollack, who need to absorb random ideas, people, and cultures into their vortex. They drain everything around them dry, and use it all to make art. I think of them as high energy artists, the gas guzzelers of the art world. They feed off ideas, chew them, digest them, and then give it all back. Hell to be around, wonderful in the museum.
There are perfectionists such as Cezanne Monet, and Matisse, artists who redo everything multiple times until it looks and feels right. These artists are always in search of the truth. One image is never enough. Try it another way. The light will change, or an object will be moved. They are always thinking that the next one will be better, will say more, will get it right. They work from instinct, they push hard, and they innovate.
Some artists have the ability to focus like lasers l on a specific set of isolated ideas. Georgia O”Keefe would fit into this category. Her concentration on the edges of forms determined how her art looked, and it really didn’t matter if the forms were buildings, flowers, or landscapes. Her focus was always the same: what happens right there on the edge, where one form meets another. Escher would also fit here. focused on bending space, math and moibus strips, playful but always serious.
To some, feelings must come first.. Rothko, Rembrandt, and Turner needed you to feel what they felt. These are the artists that mesmerize with color or light or dark. Some, like Goya or Kolwitz, take you to a darker place, and you must follow however unwilling. You have to feel what they want you to feel: serenity, despair.
There are cooler heads. The systems analysis group: Seurat, Welliver or Close. Artists who make an image by using a system. They make order from chaos systematically. They are the reductivists and controllers. This is how you do it, this is the my way, these are the rules. They are very convincing, and it always works for them.
Some artists find their stride early and speak but one language. . They are unique, and you will never mistake them for anyone else. Modiglianni, Balthus, Botero, or Litchenstein. The titles may change, but it is always the same. These are the stylists. This is what the collectors and galleries want. The same hand, distinct and recognizable.
There are artists like Audubon who spend a lifetime doing one thing to perfection, and artists like Rockwell or Worhol who can shape the perceptions of a generation. There are giants like Michelangelo, Durer, Bierstadt, whose skills and achievements are simply the highest, and tragedies like VanGogh or Gericaut.
There are generalists, artists like Pisarro or Innes, Renolds or Eakins, They can produce painting after painting at the same high level, never a misstep, excellence always.
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