clay wainscott, b44

Visual art enters the nervous system on a different channel than speech, and needs no translation. The movement of art at the time I entered was toward the unique and individual, while I had more interest in finding what was direct, universal, and accessible. I begin with a mundane object everyone already has filed in memory, and create an image that resonates against this subconscious expectation, in the manner of a jazz improvisation on a familiar melody. Rather than prosaic realism, the work presents an augmented version of shared experience, with the objective of ongoing awareness.

Over the years I’ve worked for time-clock wages up to product design, all the while maintaining a studio and continuing to paint. My approach to acrylic has been exploratory, and possibly influenced by early screen-process printing experience. Single primary colors are reduced to transparency and applied in layers, with secondary colors mixing on the canvas, back to front. Foundations are studio-built.