S.A. Wasn't Here Print

Born: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Living and working in Harbin, China. Artist Statement: I have always understood painting as a medium that embodies a thought process which depicts an accumulation of marks over a period of time. My paintings are a record of actions and reactions which often result in explosive, fractured, and chaotic images. I am interested in paintings that need to be visually unpacked; to discover which actions or marks came first and how they were applied and constructed. I pursue no objectives, no system, no tendency; I have no program, no style, no direction. I have no time for specialized concerns, working themes or variations that lead to mastery. I steer clear of definitions. I don’t know what I want. I am inconsistent, noncommittal, passive; I like the indefinite, the boundless; I like continual uncertainty. —Gerhard Richter Me, too. —Manuel Ocampo Me, three. _Sebastian Alsfeld I chanced upon an interview online with Matt Mullen interviewing painter, Amy Sillman (interviewmagazine.c-o-m/art/the-art-of-amy-sillman) . She seems to sum up my feelings about painting better than I could possibly express, so here are some snippets from the interview. Mullen: Would you say you're restless with you practice? Sillman: It's more this instinct to get into trouble. That's what painting is for me. You can make a beautiful thing but there's no problem in it. I like the idea of doing a thing, wrecking a thing, questioning a thing to the point where you have pushed it to the edge, and then recuperating it. ..... The works have to look confident but also sort of troubled. So her concerns seem to mirror my thoughts that a really good painting can't be readily resolved. It should take time, cause trouble, and pull you back to look at it, look at it more; not sit in a space or on a wall and be some comfortable, decorative object. I also understand there is a fine line between just plain old bad, uninteresting painting, and a painting that frustrates, gets under your skin a little, and commands some attention. It's the latter that drives me to keep doing this weird activity ( in this day and age) we call painting.