“This series of work was conceived and created between late 2019 through late 2020.  It was after I saw a Frank Stella exhibit on July 23, 2019 in California. I found myself more intrigued to what that average person would say is “simple”. I found myself looking at each piece close up and a from a distance. Also looking at the relation of multiple pieces related to each other in each gallery room. I walked out intrigued and inspired. Before that exhibit, I knew of Stella but never really took a deep look into his work until that exhibit.

I have always been a fan of Piet Mondrian’s work. Although much of his art is rooted in reality, Mondrian stated that “Art is higher than reality and has no direct relation to reality. To approach the spiritual in art, one will make as little use as possible of reality, because reality is opposed to the spiritual. We find ourselves in the presences of an abstract art. Art should be able realty, otherwise it would have no value for man.”

I started to take a deeper dive into Stella’s and Mondrian’s work to get an understanding of how they evolved their art to the stages of geometric abstract. I wondered… what was the driver of their compositions?…color, space or was it an extreme abstract of something in reality. 

As I dove deeper into the creation of their work, I started to rediscover other abstract artists that I never took a close look at… particularly Mark Rothko and Josef Albers. Who both took a look a color in a different way and for very different purposes. Josef Albers, the ultimate teacher of color with what I view as an interesting balance of art and graphic design. Mark Rothko’s “classic”period of using his work to pull an emotional response from each viewer.

I kept studying all four of these artists and started to experiment in a digital format as a way of putting color, shape and tone into compositions that I would like to create in a tradition painting. From a creative process stance, the  exploration of creating these “digital sketches” was exhilarating and fulfilling… so much so that I thought, “why do I need to create a traditional painting when I can create what I am looking for on my computer!” I have printed my Digital Art and Photo-painting on canvas and as a flat digital prints. I also consider other substrates and explore different ways to present this work.

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I hope you enjoy my art, my exploration and appreciate how I curated the work where I pay homage to Frank, Josef, Mark and Piet. 

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— Paul Cammarata —