Parts of an Immense Whole (8/13/21 - 9/25/21_
STATEMENT
Joseph Fiore’s confidence to render the realistic landscapes around him, while also identifying as an abstract painter, became an important aspect for me when responding to his work. So often, artists are put into boxes to help audiences charatize and understand what to expect from a body of work. How can someone be so interested in abstracting but also be fully capable and free to paint their surroundings in a realistic way? This tension and rigger is inspiring and became a focus for me when deciding which piece I would choose. The balanced exchange between representing the context of the image (realism) with the painterly hand (abstract), results in what I consider a successful or ideal painting. This challenge was interesting to me and fueled my desires in wanting to paint a more realistic landscape.
Y-Falls is a painting that represents nature in three visual segments. The trees at the top, the rocks in the middle, and the water at the bottom. This inspired my compositional choices. I’m interested in the visual challenge of connecting these three (quite different) visual bodies into one cohesive painting. There is a moment of freedom in Fiore’s Y-Falls in the upper section where he renders a light green area ever so slightly. This to me represents a far off wooded area with sun in the distance. We sometimes don’t always allow ourselves to be fully embraced by nature in the present and continuously look to what is next. This narrative was something I wanted to replicate in my own painting. The stairwell in my work represents what is to come, a slight gesture and assumption that whatever is over the stairs...is unknown. A future that cannot be planned, something we need to explore, but only after experiencing the present.