Ryan Hnat

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            Painting is a battle of consciousness; the act of applying, meditating, fighting, listening, and understanding the direct result of pigment on a flat surface. I’ve come to love and despise painting. The event, which keeps driving me and will forever haunt me, is the act of painting. It is this tension between the brush, drip, and splatter opposed against a flat canvas which I am fascinated within the act of painting. I’ve been harnessing my sensibilities and impulses within the action of painting to embody my perspective of the moment. It is an existentialist approach to painting that builds my content and interpretations of action within painting.

The key to all problems is the problem of consciousness.
Ancient Egyptian Proverb

            I believe this is the exact issue within my painting that allows me to be successful in finishing a piece. Confronting consciousness, I become aware of all the elements in my work in relation to their art historical significance and relevancy. It is also important to restate here what happens between the tension of the action and the act of the event on the canvas: chance. Chance plays a part, art historically, through much of modern art. Allowing for chance helps an artists to achieve great paintings. It is chance which becomes a solution and a problem throughout the process of creating a painting.