Dialogue Between Intuition and Form

BILL RUSH

Artist’s Statement:

Early in my career I did mostly traditional work,(i.e., landscape and still-life painting) in oil paint but occasionally watercolors. When I was attending art school, I also did portraits and figure studies based on nude models. For the next several years, I continued to do traditional work, but I eventually became interested in both abstract and surrealistic art (e.g.,Dali, deKooning) as well as a new interest in avant-garde music (e.g.,Schoenberg, Webern, Messiaen). That change began about 30 years ago, and I knew then that this was the direction that was right for me. Because of my new passion, I also developed stronger work habits, which included the dictum,“just show up!” All of that meant focusing for 3 - 4 hours or more on painting or drawing without getting distracted.I began to develop and trust my process and acknowledge that doing painting was hard work. The writer Marvis Gallant quotes Georges Bernanos, who once said that the writing process is“like rowing a boat out to sea: the shoreline disappears, it is too late to turn back, and one becomes a galley slave.” Vital to my process is the balance between rigor and emotion: rigor can be defined as the intellectual discipline necessary to establish the fundamental structure (composition) and flow before the artist can allow free rein to his/her instincts and emotions. I may rely on deeply felt emotions to begin a work but that is not sufficient to complete a work since the intellect must come into play to guide the work to become something that is responsive to the needs of an appreciative audience. This interplay between rigor and emotion may take place over several days, months or years as I paint or draw and revise until I am satisfied. To finish, I want to stress the importance of what I call “intense observation”: throughout the day I look at the world around me as being a source of shapes, textures, colors, etc. to be the inspiration for my next painting. I see this imagery as part of a chaotic source that I intuitively tap into when I’m painting.