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Artist Exhibitions:
Coming Soon!
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Artist Galleries:
Coming Soon!
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Artist Reviews:
Whitney Museum curator,
Barbara Haskell reviewed my
work and found it intriguing,
kept a slide for museums
files.
Stephen Dougherty, editor of
"American Artist" magazine,
submitted my work to the board
of directors and they stated
that they impressed with my
ability as an artist.
Leah Schlossberg, curator of
N....
Further Information
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Collections:
Coming Soon!
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Commissions:
Coming Soon!
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Artist Statement for John Segreto
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I am a self taught visual artist, working in oils, principally in a surrealistic style, but not limited to any particular style since I like to experiment with a variety of styles, subject matter and techniques.
The work resists simple explanation, simply because I try not to put logic ahead of first impressions. I, also, believe invention at the forefront of creativity.
The work represents a variety of ideas, especially contradictory concepts; some ideas are complimentary; some, ambiguous.
I leave judgment behind until a work is deemed complete. I do not accept a painting complete, until I have lived with it for several weeks, or even months, and at rare times, years.
I am not trying to create a "picture"! I am trying to create a new perspective. I hope to look at something in a way it has never been observed. If it has to be distorted, if the compositon has to be radical, if the color perverse, if the subject is illogical, that is what I aim for.
As to the "meaning" of a painting. That to me is repulsive. This quest for "meaning" is an attempt to make a mystery familiar. What could be more boring than compartmentalization! The mystery I present is not intended for solution, but introspection. Regardless of my intent, the viewer must extract his/her own realizations. I find it extremely distressing when I hear someone exclaim that they do not understand a work of art that does not represent some tangible or recognizable object. In my opinion that statement exposes the viewers unwillingness to think. To further elaborate on this subject, I quote John Fowles, "in John Fowlws revised version of "The Magus" he writes in the foreward of the book, 'I had no coherent idea at all of where I was going, in life as in the book.' Further on he says, 'The forgoing will, I hope excuse me from saying what the story "means". Novels, even more lucidly conceived and controlled ones than this, are not like crossword puzzles, with one unique set of correct answers behind the clues. If The Magus has any real significance, it is no more than that of a Rorschach test in psychology. It's meaning is whatever reaction provokes in the reader, and in so far as I am concerned there is no given 'right' reaction."
In conclusion I would like to state, I do not understand the interminably presistent drive to paint objects that can be readily photographed.
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