"Silence" 2013

I did this piece as a tribute to the marginalization of artists. I worked from this picture I took in Paris and the dimensions are 50"x42.5"

The assignment for this piece was to combine two different styles in one painting. I see little purpose in making decisions in a painting without a conceptual reason. I chose to use Egon Schiele's contour line expressionism and Pierre Auguste Renoir's impressionism. Schiele focused on the self-imposed suffering of an artist and Renoir focused on the gluttonous joys of an artist. This is the introduction and conclusion of my artist statement:

"Impressionism and Expressionism both convey the world through a biased view. Impressionists smile at the world they wish to convey through light and splashes of color. The world is a dream-like playground in many Impressionistic works. Impressionist’s bohemian life style disregarded the socially driven norms. They believed art was a pleasure in life to seek unapologetically. Egon Schiele’s expressionism conveys a darker cynical view. Through his view the world was a tormented nightmare released in his artwork. He believed art was best created from miserable anguish. Life was suffering and art was to portray this visually for Schiele. Two philosophies could not be more different, yet both share an undeniable talent for conveying the viewer’s state of mind.My piece is a combination of these two ideas and styles. The image was based upon a photograph I took in Paris of a poor, possibly homeless man playing an accordion. He watches a man in a business suit walk right past him without so much as an acknowledgment of his existence. This fragile moment is a picturesque snapshot of society’s marginalization of artists. The man on the street sees the world in color and beauty. He is in the foreground of the piece and the background holds an impressionist style as if to be his viewpoint. However, we see him and the businessman painted in Schiele’s contour lines and sketch like appearance. The figures are given this style because of the pain the accordion-player feels from upper class rejection and the businessman’s own skewed view of the accordion-player. Life and art are all to be taken in perspective. Life is not to be viewed as a blissful neglect of reality, or a miserable embrace of pain.  Art is the articulation of the human struggle to find this balance."