Peter Klubek - Klubek Gallery
Painting
I create art because making art helps me make sense of the world around me. When I am drawing or painting I am centered and focused on creating a manifestation of what I have seen and experienced. My imagery primarily revolves around the notions of history, memory, and human interaction. This includes histories and memories derived from personal experiences, but also the idea of stories and memories being generated from a specific place or object. The faces often depicted in my work are meant as a reflection of me. Not self portraits, but rather representatives from my imagination that look back at the viewer as he or she looks at the image. The distortion often depicted in my work is a reflection of the idea that histories cannot take on physical form, and memories cannot truly exist in the physical world.
Although the images in my work are often based on something from the physical world, they exist only within my minds eye, and therefore carry with them my own interpretations and understandings of the world. I feel the immediacy of drawing combined with the more painterly expressions of watercolors help convey these thoughts. The resulting image is not one based on solid geometric form, but is rather more fluid and naturalistic. This is similar to the free flowing, often distorted images used in motion pictures and television when a dream sequence is represented.
When viewers respond to my work they are responding not only to the image, but also to the way I have constructed meaning within my life. I have found art to be a tool for communication, and therefore the viewers' reaction is like a one-on-one conversation with the artist. I cannot share my experiences with everyone, but through my art, a broader conversation can be held.