Through the process of painting I relive sensations and memories while engaging in formal investigations of composition and materials. Making art has allowed me to expand my fascination with the material world while being a spiritual pursuit, a meditative practice, and a link with the past.
As a child I became interested in other countries and cultures, their archetypal images, geography, histories and languages. I have been satisfying these interests through travel around the world, staying with friends, relatives and fellow artists, and through painting. I enjoy experiencing different artworks, architecture, color and design sensibility, all of which greatly inform my own work.
The evolution of my paintings has made significant leaps during residencies at art centers and colonies, both in the United States and abroad. I prefer observing the ambient light and colors of a new place over a long period of time and responding to that experience through paint. I consider myself a process painter, with each new experience and technique adding to the previous responses.
I employ figuration to represent personal episodes in my life, using imagery from different cultures as well as my own dreams. Sometimes the figurative elements eventually evolve into more abstract imagery. Although rooted in representational figurative painting, abstraction allows me to paint more what I am feeling rather than realistically reproducing what I am seeing.
Website
http://www.craigcahoon.com
