Mark Brosseau
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Artist Statement:
“The best reason to make a painting is because you want one.” – Andrew Forge
My painting practice is driven by curiosity. The question of “what if?” is at the core of my work. Each painting begins when I wonder what some visual idea will look like once I put it down on a surface. These ideas, seeds of a painting, come from a variety of sources. I may want to explore some visual moment that I have experienced in the real world that has stuck with me and intrigued me – the way buildings in Newark, NJ create a staccato rhythm of dark violet shapes against a sunset sky that goes from dark greenish blue at its zenith to intense peach orange at the horizon. I may lift a fascinating form or relationship from art history to see what kind of invention it can inspire in me – a nearly fluorescent orange and metallic blue patterned frame from a Byzantine icon. Or, the impetus for a painting may simply be a shape, rhythm, or pattern that I have imagined. Anything where the beauty of the abstract qualities of what I am observing moves me to explore the possibilities of those relationships is a possible source for a painting.
Once that initial decision is made the painting takes shape step by step. Each decision causes a re-evaluation of what has come before. Each action balances careful consideration of how it will affect the space of the painting against the sensation of spontaneity and exploration that planted the impulse for that decision in my head in the first place. This tension between calculation and intuition is always present: I want to remain true to my intuition without decisions becoming arbitrary and I want choices to be specific and purposeful without becoming overwrought. Play and the enjoyment of putting color against color are united with exploration and the desire to communicate experience through the use of an abstract visual language. The spaces I create are meant to be not only enjoyed, but inhabited and felt – they present an opportunity for someone to journey through my process of creating and understanding this visual experience.
Through the act of painting, I hope to better understand how my eyes and body move through and assess the visual world. I want to take visual experiences that mystify me, and explore them through painting, creating a new world – a new space – informed by the world around me, but driven further by the fantastical possibilities of imagination and invention. The evolution of a space progressing on a canvas or panel is constantly fed by curiosity – questions are infinitely more important than answers. By seeing what will happen when I explore the possibilities that one visual experience presents, I become more open to seeing the anomalies and surprises in worldly visual experiences. Those anomalies and unexpected moments inevitably lead me to a new path of wondering “what if?”
-Mark Brosseau, Wondrous Spaces, 2010