Artist's Statement
Abstract art is music for the eyes.
It energizes the spaces we live in, sparking the imagination, refreshing the body and mind.
In the studio there is a moment when the painting begins to "breathe," when I feel my blood pressure drop and there's a sudden sense of quiet.
That feeling of rightness is always a bit of a shock. Often it feels like I'm watching it happen, as if the work is painting itself.
I've heard artists of all types acknowledge the unexpected resolution as part of their creative process. As Robert Frost put it, No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.
When a painting connects emotionally with a viewer, it's a gift. But it's a gift the artist received first, alone in the studio.
Sharing that feeling with others is the reason I paint.
I feel an affinity with abstract expressionists of the mid-20th century, sharing the belief that relationships of color, space, and texture powerfully convey aspects of human experience in purely visual terms.
Inspired by a wide variety of masters including Cezanne, Picasso, Diebenkorn, Mitchell, Motherwell, and Rothko, I develop motifs and rhythms by improvising within the constraints of a structural idea.
Like Jazz, my work explores the tension between harmony and discord, structure and spontaneity, form and freedom, in pursuit of honest expression and ultimately, joy.
- David Michael Slonim