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Storm Tharp

Statement

I've come to regard my work as representational - in a rather liberal assignment of the word. The portrait, the contour and the field are in reference to the senses, the intellect, and the uncanny. The work elicits meaning or feeling that is recognizable. Abstraction and representation walk hand in hand and share the same body.

When making choices with materials, my instincts, and strategies are at play. However, there is never one, singular, organizing principal. In my figurative work, the primary interest has been to unfold various traditions of painting and sculpture into my own, emerging with something altogether new. It involves fumbling around in the dark while simultaneously maintaining the driving projection of where I want the work to land and reflect what I believe in. If one portrait imbues an entire life story, the colorfield works exercise an emotional code of unraveling that story. And in this way, I believe the portrait and the field are equivalent; like twins from different fathers.