ARTIST STATEMENT
Fundamentally, paintings are just color, nothing more. Here I quote Larry Poons, my teacher and long-time inspiration. While our work may be dissimilar, his ideas about painting have been my greatest influence. He has given me a fine sense of colors’ influences on one another, and the importance of freedom and experimentation in art; the knowledge that I am not in control of the process. Once I’ve gathered the material and begin to paint, I stop thinking and stop trying.
I had been using over-all designs of complex patterns where hidden objects or creatures might spontaneously appear. My work, sometimes surreal, used unintentional lines and shapes creating unexpected spaces and layers.
My current work is a series of one or more simple human seeming forms that I refer to as angels. Each angel is made up of different colors, either standing or floating within a variety of backgrounds. These considered colors provide each angel with a different mood and voice.
Concurrently, I feel a profound need to populate our world with angels. Our highly complex sociopolitical imbalances with cultural infrastructures built on decaying foundations are visibly fracturing and increasing the world’s destabilization. As I look for my own inspiration to make art I hope to inspire others to join in a dialogue of growth and equitable restructuring. This is essential.
ABOUT
A New York City artist, Billy Kornbluth (they/them), Is currently painting an abstract series of what they refer to as angels after
a woman named Angela who inspired a future of hope which is hard won these days. Using a muted palette, spare figures, are bound by loss, are subdued, pensive, forgiving, and some angry.
They work with acrylic paint applied with a flat finish to appear dusty and old. Their palette is usually of muted or dark colors often with one contrasting color. The depth of background
colors can make foreground shapes appear detached. They relate to many of Paul Gauguin’s portraiture and Amedeo Modigliani’s elongated figures.
Kornbluth grew up surrounded by artists and crafts people. It only made sense that they followed in this tradition. Art schooling was paramount and they attended weekend classes at MoMA as a child. In addition to attending Bennington College majoring in the fine arts, the greatest influence was the 25+ summers spent drawing and painting on Monhegan Island in Maine. This island boasts a powerful tradition of artists like Rockwell Kent, George Bellows, Edward Hopper, Louise Nevelson, three generations of Wyeth’s, John Hultberg, Lynn Drexler, Michael Loew, etc. These artists
(among so many others) along with a landscape of deep pine forest and sheer granite cliffs plunging into the ocean have focused Kornbluth’s vision and fueled their intention.
Includes education, experience, exhibitions, and awards.
