Oil

It's a loaded word oil. It is a resource, a medium, a suspension, a vehicle, and a dirty word these days. But I use the medium. I am a painter.

I can be found here: http://www.lanceeldert.com/

My work is exploratory and more about the image than the surface statement. The idea comes first usually on which the image is built. I have a tendency toward short series as ideas have many sides and I dwell on them a bit, but not too much. No other media feels as open ended and available to me. I write often and love it, in fact I feel pent up without that release of prose, but it is oil that really does it for me. It seems more efficient in a way. A finished painting keeps creating words when viewed. It will go on forever if you keep looking. A good painting will come to life and live far beyond the creator. It can have a voice and a story and use one to express the other as long as there is someone to see it. I know one is done when it basically puts me in a trance and I just stare without seeing things to work on. When a painting begins a conversation with you when you walk in the room, that's how you know.

I do not believe painting is limited to the realistic or is obligated to use the absurd to be art. I do not believe it has to shock you either or require lengthy explanation. I do not believe something qualifies as art because just anyone has labeled it as such. On that note, though I consider the notion, "art for art's sake" a mistake and lazy, I do not wish to define what it actually is, provided I dare claim the acumen to do so anyway. It is a dynamic entity, organic across ages, so any attempt at true definition is destined to fail over time. You do know it when you see it and it's best spotted by trained professionals, but to prove it is or is not is like proving love or quantifying imagination.

There can be no end to expression or the subconscious. Each can change and are unique. I intend to explore them and discover things along the way. Maybe this can be my daily or weekly writing outlet so that I may be feel free to explore in paint at night.