Artists’s Statement

Goldenberg discusses the context for his Visual jazz:

gallopations_forsythius_400h72_1618

Gallopations of Forsythius, 2012, oil on canvas assemblage, 68” x 74”

All my artwork reflects my love for music—especially jazz: Its process, tempo, and dynamism

I play trumpet and I often listen to jazz as I work. My artistic language reflects my love this music. Even when my studio is silent, jazz is there, inside me. My imagery is jazz made visible: layers of melodies and rhythms, swinging and syncopating, calling and responding. This visual improvisation is conjured from a deep place and appears as gestures, colors, symbols, and glyphs. Shapes, textures, and patterns move through me onto my canvas.

My sculptural paintings have a tempo, tone and color that correlate well to this musical form. I use color, shape, texture, movement, and rhythm to express my artistic voice. The resulting mixed-media artworks are improvisations of layered imagery, materials, bold cutouts, and compelling shapes. I call my style ExpressaVizzazzaVeeBopanism, or simply, Visual Jazz. I hand build each freeform canvas with plywood, epoxy, and fabric collage surfaces. Like a stone sculptor, I use reductive techniques—cutting holes and shaping edges—to create sculptural paintings that are visually, technically unique, lightweight, and durable.

shel_700_72painting_buoy

Shel, 2012, acrylic paint on paper, 42″x 36″

I paint using vibrant colors on highly textured, innovative, shaped canvases. I build these canvases with collaged fabrics, gesso, epoxy, string, and thin plywood. They are ingeniously lightweight and durable. The jigsaw-puzzle –shapes in my paintings are born from forms I see in nature. They become a metaphor for the interconnectedness of all things in the world. The cutouts create a counterpoint to the painted shapes. The outer edges jut into space, casting shadows that move as the light of day changes. Arrangements in texture are the foundation for paint. This under layer builds rhythms and gesture that are he structural underpinning for the spatial relationships I then create in paint.

My visual language is personal yet universal. The collective unconscious shares mythological motifs and primordial images. Noticing the silhouette of a tree or a cloud, the shape of a corroded piece of metal, or a melting patch of snow can evoke images that emerge from my subconscious. My canvases reveal constellations of these archetypal images. They are rooted in the unconscious just as a tree is rooted in the ground. These archetypes shapes my work as images shape me as well. I choose the colors, shapes, and patterns to express my connection to this universal unconscious.

Related Images:

Comments are closed.