Search for the Real

Christopher Dunlap

Thomas Elenore

Delphine Hennelly

Jason Gillis

Jesse Patrick Martin

Anthony Palocci Jr.

Sometimes artists make a great work of art naturally and immediately, other times not, however this helps engage artist’s ability to be critical of their own work. More often than not, they work, re-work, and question the very things they make again and again. Over time, this practice becomes a way of learning and complements the visual mode of production. Painters, in particular, have a certain internalized way of doing this, arranging their tools and preparing surfaces to get started. Mental awareness from years of ritualized thinking leads to new answers to solving pictorial problems. Also, not to be overlooked, is the idea of ‘seeing’ by having your eyes open to the world for what excites you. Forms appear and disappear, color comes forward or becomes subdued, and overall ways of starting a painting will change. This form of art is an internal world, something you cannot see but which nevertheless controls what we do as artists. In the end, it’s a way to get to the realness of a thing by accumulating human content.