TA: Audience awareness, artist public statement

Artist’s statement
I believe that there is something inside of artists that they try to bring out in the medium—something like how they have been living up to this time, their mentality, their opinion of the subject they are painting, their feelings, and expressions.
This is not to mean that artists must paint puppies and hollyhocks when they are happy, and corpses when they are depressed. It does not mean that in order to paint the artist’s opinion of life he or she must paint in a literal manner to illustrate concepts; a spilling cup symbolizing a death, a cat symbolizing the demon inside, etc.
If you want, you could paint a portrait of a little girl when you are happy, and this same portrait when you’re depressed, or anxious, or tired. These feelings don’t have to be literally manifested in the subject but they will come out in the way that that the artist paints. The brushstrokes made become an indication of who the artist is and what he or she is thinking or feeling. As layer is laid upon layer and feeling upon feeling, depth is created—the painting will show humanity.
The artist must strive to have the freedom to express what he or she wishes. They must choose and master a medium that allows them the greatest freedom to express what they wish. It is a communication with the viewer, but instead of using words the artist uses image.
Art should put the viewer in a state of aesthetic arrest—to take them in. In my paintings I’ve striven to paint lifelike. This is not to be confused with photorealism—I want to go beyond realism and paint life not by what I paint, but how.