Artist Statement:

Painting is an action. Painting is also a visual experience.
In this, Painting can act either as window or wall.

When looked at like a wall, Painting rests on the surface. It refers ultimately to nothing but itself as Painting. Painting therefore accesses only itself, and ultimately does not present anything but itself as Painting. It is looked at.
All contents within such paintings do not truly refer to anything but the painting itself. Such Painting speaks of nothing but itself as Painting, as surface, form, color, as the very stuff of Painting. It signifies nothing but itself, and only itself. Our joy is in its materiality, opticality, and object-hood.

Yet, it may point past itself, presenting a view into something imagined. When a Painting is looked into, like an imaginative window, it reveals and fixes the absence of its subject; we are re-minded of that person, place, dream, of that which is not truly present. The painting acts as recollection, an effigy of reality, a memorial. It becomes a vehicle of re-assemblance for us, and a calling back from the void. Such Painting disappears into the infinite absence of its subject, revealing only a relic in our memory or else a prophecy and a hope. The subject is not here; Here is only us and this painted image. Our joy is in its meaning, reference, and subjectity.

When looked into, Painting reveals an opening to the world.
When looked at, Painting revels in the surfaces of the world.
The very best kind of Painting unites the objecthood of the material and the idea of the artist, oscillating between both modes, creating both tension and pleasure in one’s vision.

The real point of Painting as a spiritual discipline is to reveal our vision to ourselves, to make vision visible, imaginatively and tangibly as one. And then share that with others.
In always seeking that which is just beyond form, in seeking to touch the Spirit, the true artist attempts to wield matter to penetrate the visibility of his own vision; pointing the burning spear-tip of their creativity at the ungraspable idea. For with every gesture of the brush, one is also faced with an infinite withdrawal into the particular, into forms, into act, into Painting itself.


+Justyn Michael Zolli