Michael S. Nugent, Lafayette
Member Since August 2007
Artist Statement Statement:
The scenery I create is made to engage each person’s individual imagination. The illusion of unobstructed vision encourages self-exploration and serves as a backdrop for the viewer’s thoughts. Through art I strive to communicate our inherent primal nature, focusing on personal awareness and enlightenment.
Painting, whether from the tube or computer simulated, to me is a
retreat; it's my meditation; an escape to an ideal place. Often times my color choices are random and spontaneous, other times I have a particular scene in mind. The finished product is an attempt at describing what I refer to as instinctual thought, and clarity of mind. My work ranges from abstract, bold and emotional to surreal, subtle and ethereal, always beginning with a pure composition of land and sky.
Bio:
I was born in Lafayette, Louisiana on March 30th, 1982. My interest in the arts began at a very early age. My mother is a talented impressionistic painter and has always encouraged my creative skills. I attended private art lessons throughout childhood, and was accepted into Advanced Placement Art in high school. I received many awards for my artistic achievements, including Best of Show for a painting submitted to the Youth Art Council of America.
In college I studied Industrial Design and Fine Arts, concentration in painting, first at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette for two years, and then the University of New Orleans where I received a Bachelor of Arts degree. Currently I’m involved in many artistic pursuits such as gallery and museum exhibition, commissions, teaching, and architectural design.
Since my internship at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, short-lived because of hurricane Katrina, I’ve been developing plans for a "green" museum, event space, and film and music venue. In light of the destruction and following revival of the Gulf Coast, I began educating myself by researching architecture and green design methods. I create digital 3D building models of house and museum concepts that utilize experimental materials. My parents, both successful business developers, have also designed and built several of our family homes in and around my hometown. Usually having some part in the finish work, I was exposed to the conventional construction process again and again as we searched for the perfect home.
I am trained and experienced in traditional fine art mediums, however the computer has become my medium of choice. I use it extensively for preliminary compositions for oil and acrylic paintings. It may not be widely considered a fine art form, but I believe it is gaining acceptance while enabling artists to produce more work more affordably. The absence of costly fine art materials allows the artist to experiment freely without wasting any paint. In addition, the Internet allows the artist to reach a wider audience without the expense of travel.
Artists who have influenced me include Van Gogh, Rothko, Turner, Monet, Richter, Kiefer, Newman, Diebenkorn, Dali, Magritte, Hopper, Katsushika, De Stael, Feininger, Viola, Mori, and Hadid. Also one Louisiana artist in particular, Elmore Morgan Jr., a prolific landscape painter whom I met when he demonstrated his technique for my high school art class.
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