ARTIST STATEMENT

There is discovery and awareness and flickering moments of hope, injustice, happiness, sadness and reconciliation rooted in my work. A creation of absolute reality, improvisation and organized chaos taking place while I as a Being, I as an Artist am present and mindful of higher intelligence at work. Genuine manifestation of an empath at work? Or an artist approach to representing the assemblage of experiences we all encounter, reject or endure. I say both! However you visualize the paintings, the themes reflect on Life, Death, Suffering, Redemption and Sexuality. No compromises, no regrets, but with my own explicit consent and authority to fully express.

The paintings represent all that is lost and all that is gained through the continuum of Being present ever more. Evidence of annihilation and self-consciously edited serine surfaces are corrupted from within, a perversion of paintings that once had a sense of clarity and true meaning, is left disturbed. The work occupies a space between representation and abstraction converging in some aspects of an illusion. Witnessing on occasion, the human form, sometimes reduced torso or brain. My painterly expression is candidly infused with steely references to mental health. While I perform motions of paint splash, pour and control to convey meaning, I explore the possibilities of the mediums function. Classical combines techno, pop and jazz to create an image with synesthetic effect, alluding to sensations other than the visual.

Venture and explore the terrain and you will find cryptic text, social interferences and uncontrollably wild, yet tamed paint strokes with an aura of mysticism and spirituality. The subject of imagery is created with earnest conviction undermined by its own frantic expression. Elements of composition and style undulates with individual promise. Together, they are mutually rejective elements violently clamoring for attention. The occasional use of LED lightening in my work represents the soul, consciousness and sheds light on the triumph and grief succumbed by the human spirit. And the reflective Mylar material you see  yourself in, is what the painting is all about. Humanity. The joy for me comes from the right mix of experimentation and rules, or in other words, the process. The figurative imagery, the text, the colors, the markings, or the physical remnants of our culture together add up to a feeling, one that is mostly made up by you, the viewer.

Roland Pasqual Rockwood