ILAN LAKS

Artist Statement

I start a group or "litter" of paintings, 10 or so within the same month. For the next year and a half I raise this litter as best I can; trying to always remember their individuality that makes them unique, while celebrating the familial ties that bind them. I try to mitigate their weaknesses and bring out their strengths. I don’t shelter them from risk; rather I sponsor and encourage any direction they wish to grow.
I cannot make a river or a tree, but I can be creator in this galaxy. These snapshots of the different landscapes within this galaxy provide my life with a certain amount of shade against the harsh light of our earth bound reality. These paintings are not pictures of anything, they are the thing itself.
The pieces exist as alone as we are. They are beings, like a beaver or a fern. By using chemistry (paint and its outcomes) I use evolution rather than plans. Rather than a new way of looking at something, the pieces are something new to look at. My work tumbles out while it refines, never entering a development stage and never leaving it either. The works evolve simultaneously for up to a year, learning from each other and finding their unique identity, which like a person is as obvious from 20 feet or 2 inches. Like people, the pieces reveal only a small amount of themselves at first. To appreciate the true beauty of complex and interesting people you must go to them and invest yourself. Only then are you let inside. The pieces aspire to be conversations rather than statements. The works are groups of siblings.

-ilan Laks