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ARTISTS' STATEMENTS John Zarcone My painting has always been concerned with the possibilities particular to painting. Issues of plastic form, flat shape, pictorial vs. illusionistic space, and the actual space of the object itself. These issues are asserted, and subsequently rejected, sometimes at the same time, in the same painting. This layering of the irreconcilable produced work aspiring to a general reductivism through addition. In my pursuit of opposing actual space with a more painterly space, my painting became quite sculptural, and even though I tried to achieve a sense of movement to offset the static tendency of the object, the pieces would often seem inert or dead. I saw this as a problem. Lately through my use of color and paint application I've attempted to infuse my paintings with a sense of lightness, or weightlessness, while also working toward a spontaneity in overall effect. This has resulted in a dialing back of sculptural form (for now) to be replaced by its illusion. I see this spontaneity and weightlessness as the antithesis of most formal abstraction (or painting in general) where denial of hand, increasingly elaborate supports, and an airless seriousness seem to be the defining norm. Making something that looks like it was made by a machine has never been interesting to me. The quest for industrial perfection in fabrication, and the fetishizing of technology for its own sake, smells like the same old modernist utopianism. I don't want to be a machine, and I don't want to paint like one. If art is about life, then at the very least, the art should appear alive. |
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Mark Wessel This most recent body of work represents a shift in my focus toward work that is more process oriented. As its starting point it relies on a loosely controlled generation of organic shapes and textures through a staining process that begins a dialog between me and the work. I respond to this beginning with line, shape and color that assert a dimensional presence, pushing forward from the ground. I've desigated these paintings and ink drawings by letter and number only, "R" referring to the Rorschach ink blot tests we associate with psychological testing. The point is to provide viewers with the opportunity to create their own narratives and identities for their experience of the work. Responses are as varied as the individuals who see them.
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