Art by Sean J. Randall

Artist Statement

There is a scene in the movie Frida when Diego Rivera says to Frida Kahlo, “If you’re a real painter, you’ll paint because you can’t live without painting.  You’ll paint till you die.”  I have no idea whether Diego ever actually said that but there is a great deal of truth here.  A painter doesn’t paint to please the maximum number of viewers or sell to the highest bidder.  It’s not even about good art or bad art.  The painter paints because the painter has to.

I was thirty when, on a whim, I grabbed a cheap student canvas, a set of clumpy acrylics and a brush that left most of its bristles on the canvas.  The completed work wasn’t very good.  I could blame the insufficient quality of the materials but I don’t think you’d believe me.  

The fact is, these first attempts revealed something to me, a new room in my soul.  Here, colors are brighter.  Emotions are different.  Joy, fear, accomplishment, disappointment, frustration, contentment.  These take on a completely different meaning when experienced in the context of the creative process.  The simple act of pulling a brush across a canvas, especially when it is caked with enough red paint to give the average art teacher a heart attack, can elicit such a sense of warmth that the body begins to bead with sweat.  Commingle that red with an intense purple and the heart can actually start to race.

I paint what I love: color, movement, rhythm, contradiction.  I love the conflict that is within the soul of any person of substance.  I love the fact that the DNA model is depicted in an array of colors, light and dark.  And I love the idea that a DNA model of the soul would look similar to one of those colored sand bottles kids make at the carnival. I imagine dancing colors that compliment and contradict one another.  I see yellows and pinks having cocktails with ceruleans and reds while the darker greens and cobalts sulk ominously in the back of the room, plotting their eminent coup d’etat.

When I paint I’m able to tap into that brightly colored room within my soul.  Once you’ve been there, you can’t wait to visit again.  Painting has allowed me to move there and I have no desire to leave.

Sean Randall

10/18/2008

Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.

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