ARTIST STATEMENT

The strangeness of this life cannot be measured. One would think that as you age and mature, a pattern would unfold to aid you along the path your life follows.  Of course, the opposite is what surfaces, and you then seek shelter for the needs of your spirit.  As Oscar Wilde said, "Simple pleasures are the last refuge of the complex."

I find shelter in the locales seen in these paintings.  By finding them, I have found myself.  It's that simple.  I have increasingly simplified my paintings in order to create an atmosphere that is sometimes meditative, sometimes something else.  Every work of art creates its own climate in which it can be understood.  It is not about the subject; it is what you carry with you to it that matters, and that is what supplies the spark of ignition.  I simply wait long enough, patiently, and life shows up.

I really feel the less I say about my paintings the more likely they are to invite an exchange.  I have no interest in labels such as "abstract" or "representational."  I don't really care about technique or how color may relate to form or anything else.  My interest is in my response to the emotion of the moment.  These paintings, then, are my refuge and hopefully mirror what I feel for life at this time.

                                                                                                                        John Felsing