Artist Statement

Art is the activity that occurs in the space that exists between a viewer’s eyes and the object I've created. It is the interaction between the collective experiences in your brain as you process the way I have chosen to express the collective experiences in my brain. It is only when this exchange takes place that my work becomes Art

My process and technique developed from a two and half year psychosis. I found myself staring at reflections, the more uneven the surface the better. This technique I refer to as “Ambiguous Delusions”. I wanted to bring the viewer into the painting. By painting distinct shapes of color, the viewers sub conscience and conscience mind had to deconstruct and reconstruct the fragments of color into something the viewer recognized.. It is the viewer that blends the color, not the artist. The viewer brings to this process their own perspective, their life experiences and history. Each viewer sees the image differently, and creates their own Ambiguous Delusion.

My Process

Let me begin with a bit of personal history. I was diagnosed with severe depression with psychotic symptoms. During this period of time I experienced hallucinations, delusions and a break with reality. This allowed me to see reflections in a new light. I wanted to capture this experience in my art.

I use color temperature, unity of pigments, and the physics of reflected light on textured surfaces in my compositions.My paintings are comprised of fragments of color, typically greater then a thousand unique shapes with a palette of seventy to ninety unique colors.  Similar to Chuck Close's paper pulp process. I build the paint in a textured way. Light reflected off a smooth surface is different then light reflected off a textured surface.From a distance the viewer my see this as a blended image but if one looks closely at the composition the artist does no blending of color. From a distance it is this reflected diffused light that gives this painting a photo realistic look, but up close it looks like an abstract painting.  Also because of the physics of reflected light the painting changes as light dims in the room the blending of colors is more apparent, or one looks at the painting from a 45 degree angle as opposed to a 90 degree angle.

© Donald Rizzo 2006 -2021

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