Artist Statement
Today thousands of young artists are navigating a complicated artistic inheritance and seem fated to be driven by an unending hunger to produce fresh, new, influential work in a landscape replete with historical piles of artistic movements, fads, trends, and crazes. My own belief is that “there is nothing new under the sun.” My role as an artist is not to create something new but to grasp and translate the essence of the body, the soul, and the spirit through Spiritual Abstraction. My work is informed by the inner workings of science and biology. I often incorporate elements that move the viewer from the macro to the micro, just like a microscope. My work delves into the middle of the psyche, the motivations, and the heart. What is the structure of hope? the texture of bondage? the shade of temptation? My work reveals the wonders, words, and creations of God and aims to glimpse and portray small truths of the nature of our universe as we travel on our way. As I create, I am continually confronted with the reality that paintings have their limitations yet greatly relish the challenge of placing physical, emotional, and eternal concepts on small areas of space. My work is produced in layers with each layer symbolizing a different plane or dimension. For example, the surface layer prepared with texture or mixed media often symbolizes the unseen, space, time, eternity, and the metaphysical. Other layers comprise the work’s structure, form, direction, color and harmony. I believe that God exists outside of time and space and that the pure essence of God’s presence, heart, and will can be grasped and known through prayer, through music, through words, and through art. When God allows me to study and see but a tiny glimpse into the realm of the spirit --small truths about the nature of our universe are revealed. This is the essence of the message of the art that I am compelled to produce, the Art of the Spirit.
John Zender
Today thousands of young artists are navigating a complicated artistic inheritance and seem fated to be driven by an unending hunger to produce fresh, new, influential work in a landscape replete with historical piles of artistic movements, fads, trends, and crazes. My own belief is that “there is nothing new under the sun.” My role as an artist is not to create something new but to grasp and translate the essence of the body, the soul, and the spirit through Spiritual Abstraction. My work is informed by the inner workings of science and biology. I often incorporate elements that move the viewer from the macro to the micro, just like a microscope. My work delves into the middle of the psyche, the motivations, and the heart. What is the structure of hope? the texture of bondage? the shade of temptation? My work reveals the wonders, words, and creations of God and aims to glimpse and portray small truths of the nature of our universe as we travel on our way. As I create, I am continually confronted with the reality that paintings have their limitations yet greatly relish the challenge of placing physical, emotional, and eternal concepts on small areas of space. My work is produced in layers with each layer symbolizing a different plane or dimension. For example, the surface layer prepared with texture or mixed media often symbolizes the unseen, space, time, eternity, and the metaphysical. Other layers comprise the work’s structure, form, direction, color and harmony. I believe that God exists outside of time and space and that the pure essence of God’s presence, heart, and will can be grasped and known through prayer, through music, through words, and through art. When God allows me to study and see but a tiny glimpse into the realm of the spirit --small truths about the nature of our universe are revealed. This is the essence of the message of the art that I am compelled to produce, the Art of the Spirit.
John Zender