Artist Statement:
My most recent paintings are of fragments of the surface of the ocean rendered in a grey-scale palette mixed entirely from indigo, red and white. Although the end result is quite realistic, I am careful to maintain a balance between a rich, lively paint surface, and visual accuracy. My perspective, which ranges from close to extreme close up, can bring my compositions to the brink of abstraction by focusing so narrowly that context is obscured. Situational cues such as a horizon line or light source are intentionally cropped out. What remains is an unbounded section of sensual topography, the actual scale and orientation of which is unknowable and unimportant. This, combined with the essentially fractal nature of the imagery, fosters an ambiguity that keeps the focus on the corporeality of both the subject and the painting.
I paint this world inch by inch, or more accurately, pixel by pixel, using my own digital photographs as source imagery. The technology enables me to capture a level of detail or moment in time that is not accessible through casual observation, and through careful editing I am able to identify and isolate events or phrases within the larger context that strike me as both intimate and universal, timeless and ephemeral.
words courtesy of Edie Nadelhaft