J. Lynn Kelly, Texas
Member Since January 2007
Artist Statement I am a self taught artist who picked up a paint brush for the first time about seven years ago and became a full time artist about one year ago. Before that, I had had spent thiry years in the printing business. Artists who have influenced my art are Modigliani, Mondrian, Gris, Leger, Gaugin and Kandinski.
My goal in painting is the pictorial representation of a state of mind, conveyed with sufficient force to evoke an emotional response in the viewer.
This state of mind, or actually state of spirit, is usually achieved in the act of making art rather that in the generally accepted myth of “inspiration,” being the act preceding art. If I waited until inspiration struck before I began to paint, I’d hardly ever paint. The discovering of the idea I want to convey, and the resolution of barriers to that communication, comes in the doing, not in the thinking. In other words, a solution cannot be found until there is a need for a solution, and there won’t be a need until I’m engaged in the process of creation.
I prefer to paint in oil as its long drying time enables the subtle adjustment of color needed to get where I want to be. My approach to the creative process usually begins without preliminary sketches going straight to linear composition on the canvas, and proceeds to the application of color, wet on wet, to the forms created in outline.
Depicting the illusory nature of duality in the human condition interests me above all else. The immediately manifested material needs, in conflict with the usually less insistent spiritual search -- as revealed in the urge to fulfill the one even at the cost of the other.
What appeals to me is work that engages my imagination, causing me to wonder what’s being asked of me, and urging me to resolve the questions for myself. My own art expresses the question, in form and color, and is intended to invite the viewer to enjoy their own search for the answer.
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