PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST: BRENDAN SCHICK
Brendan Schick Artist Portraits in their studio. I first met Brendan at an art show a number of years ago, i was drawn to his work. Recently i made my way to his studio to create images of him in his surroundings. I found his work environment meditative, focused, quiet. I see the work he was invovled with in these shots, as the moments when you awake and still feel your dreamy sleeping other self. In these images I also sense the hours of upon hours an artist spends alone with their work creating, involved, thinking, slaving away. Thanks Brendan.
I am interested in looking closely.
I paint in the style of realism to emphasize the familiar, while also making the familiar metaphorical. Seeking out and creating objects, scenes, and spaces that seem in-between, dreamlike, and uncanny is the initial stage of my process. I then document my subjects through photos, sketches, and writing in order to reflect and invoke an atmosphere that replicates the original space of inspiration. Once these components are in place, I am ready to begin painting.
Ghostly hooded sweaters are common motifs
Twisted masses of cloth, draped fabric, and ghostly hooded sweaters are common motifs, employed to entice the eye and suggest the contemplation of noncommittal forms. I’m looking for the strangely commonplace, and a cognitive dissonance that triggers lucid wakefulness.
I draw to express and appreciate stillness, change, and complexity. This work is placid, slow moving, and meditative. Each piece appears as an ornately configured, organic specimen that references fungal growths, coral entities, plant life, and the world of microscopy. The imagery is isolated in negative space, and framed as a presentation, as if pinned inside a museum display case.
Lucid wakefulness
The ideas of presence, self/no self, emptiness and form, uncertainty, and humour are paramount in the discussion of my work. I strive to operate within the concept of the carnivalesque - to expose the ridiculous, and enjoy the confusion of existence with my audience through stories, beautiful and haunting imagery, and rich visual units of expression.
