Proximity
IV
Doug
Malone
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"My
work as a figurative painter arises from a deep and abiding sense
of isolation and detachment. All human beings, to some degree,
experience such feelings; they are universal. In The Art of
Loving, Erich Fromm states that Man's "awareness of himself
as a separate entity. . . the awareness of his aloneness and
separateness. . . makes his separate, disunited existence an
unbearable prison." Fromm asserts that the experience of
separateness is ultimately the cause of all anxiety, and that
humankind "of all ages and cultures is confronted with one
and the same question: the question of how to overcome
separateness, how to achieve union, how to transcend one's
individual life and find at-onement."
I strive to explore these issues through my figurative
paintings.
In
the painting process itself, however, my primary concern is with
technical and formal issues such as draughtsmanship, palette,
spatial context, composition, etc. Each painting usually undergoes
extensive transformation during the course of its creation until
all the problems which arise are finally resolved." |