“The fact that I choose the non-representational mode as a means of expression is because I feel that I can best stir the imagination of the viewer in this manner.”
Lee Ables
It has always been my feeling that a work of art has to be more than mere reproduction of something already familiar to the view. That is why truly great works of art go beyond the superficial representation of things to a reflection of the ideas and feelings of the artist. This is not to decry representationalism, since most great works of art of the past are representational, but usually what makes those works great have little to do with what is represented. The fact that I choose the non-representational mode as a means of expression is because I feel that I can best stir the imagination of the viewer in this manner.
If you’re asking, as people often do, “What was your thinking when you started this painting?” you are on the wrong track. My paintings, while inspired by nature, are neither of nature nor about nature. I try to utilize the colors, textures, and shapes that I see in nature in a new and innovative way to create a world that doesn’t exist anywhere except on the canvas and in the viewer’s imagination. I approach painitng with no preconcieved ideas about the finished product, but rather let intuition guide the brush and my response to what is put on the canvas. The only intellectual part os towards the end when I try to organize the work into a balanced and definitive statement.
I want the viewers to see things the have never seen before, to visualize a world that doesn’t exist anywhere except in their own imagination. In this way, it makes the viewer something of an artist, as well.
