PAUL HRUSOVSKY - ARTIST’S STATEMENT

When I walk and hike, I collect “shards” of rocks, wood and any natural objects that interest me and bring them back to my studio to use for inspiration for drawings and paintings.  I begin with the object and stylize it by reducing the form to simple line-sometimes adding other lines and sometimes subtracting.  My compositions look like collections: neatly laid out without much overlap and connection. I am thinking about not holding on to objects and having the freedom to let them go.

 I started working one year ago and originally began with a series of male nudes.  Birds began to appear again in my life and thus began to appear in the paintings.

They are telling the men something that I have not been able to understand yet, just like the blue birds who appeared outside my window the day of major surgery and never left for six weeks.  After several months my direction changed, thus the “shard” series.

I use acrylic paint and metal leaf.  The paint is layered, scrapped away and sometimes images are screened on with stencils that I hand cut.

I attended Ohio University in Athens , Ohio and Washington University in St. Louis, Mo. My degrees are: BFA painting, MA art education, minor in ceramics.

 My work has been shown at Somerhill Gallery, Tyndall and Craven Allen Galleries.  Over the years I have had several one and two person shows at these galleries and consequently my work is in numerous private and public collections