Variable Geography
Paintings & Prints by Robin McClintock
Opening Saturday August 31st // 6-9pm
Artist Statement:
As an artist I have chosen a process that relies heavily on the evidence of the process itself; visible decision-making, drawing, erasing, covering and uncovering. I am influenced by my environment, experiences and events, both local and global.
I am particularly passionate about graphite as a medium for the lush range of surfaces I can manipulate. As a painter, I track my change of direction on the paper. My work is a reduction of the infinite possibilities and the complexities of life. My vocabulary as an artist is rooted in the deliberate and physical act of selecting color, scale, material and mark making. The grid evident in much of my work provides an organizing, though not restrictive, framework. Cartography provides inspiration through its interpretation of complex three-dimensional worlds into two dimensions. Through interpretation, the cartographer imposes order on the chaotic facts of everyday life. My process is both a sensory and a mechanical process: making paintings is a physical and intellectual activity driven by my innate desire to make something. As an abstract painter I immerse myself in the world of interpretation: grasping intentions, suggesting a meaning, demanding a dialog with the viewer, if only indirectly. Painting can be an act of memory. My perspective of the world changed when I moved from lower Manhattan to rural West Virginia. The relationship of my present landscape and its impact on my life is very different from that of the urban landscape. Yet, at various times, both have been home and my intimate relationship with both landscapes resonates in my work. Personal geography determines both how one perceives and how one is perceived. Yet what really matters is how one is in the world. The painter as interpreter must be researcher, interpreter, observer, subject and editor.