Art is one of the earliest and perhaps most intimate forms of communication. It intuitively connects us to our forgotten past and provides insight beyond our ordinary or habitual perception. Each viewer becomes uniquely stimulated according to the aesthetic cultivated by his or her life experience.
Painting, as an art, is based upon more than creating a beautiful picture, for pure beauty is not found in the external aesthetic. The essence of beauty hides in convulsive layers. Once the layers are peeled away, the heart is revealed. This is the purest form of beauty, and the impulse of my work.
The work is richly embedded in the technical canons of painting, visually appealing to society's sense of beauty and mystique. It allows the viewer to step inside the painting and see things differently. It expresses philosophical thought on social concerns and emulates the psychological state and physical nature of society.
While at work, meditative thought interacts with the canvas, creating a dialogue of creative play, the synthesis of which harvests a broader understanding. Through total immersion into the act of painting, I push the creative boundaries beyond the ordinary, using metaphor, allegory, and irony to convey my thoughts. The obvious becomes ambiguous, beauty and banality conflate, and multiple meanings emerge. The vivid colors and unlikely settings create emotional tension between the reality of the subject and the palatable representation on canvas. The viewer is enticed to peer into a newly discovered world and challenged to uncover new realizations.
DS Wade