Born: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Living and working in Harbin, China.
Education:
1999-2002 Bachelor of Fine Arts with distinction, Painting Major, Alberta College of Art and Design, Calgary, AB. (Studied under acclaimed Canadian painter, Chris Cran)
1996-1998 Fine Arts Diploma, Grant MacEwan Community College, Edmonton, AB.
Artist Statement:
I have always understood painting as a medium that embodies a thought process which depicts an accumulation of marks over a period of time. My paintings are a record of actions and reactions which often result in explosive, fractured, and chaotic images. I am interested in paintings that need to be visually unpacked; to discover which actions or marks came first and how they were applied and constructed.
I'm interested in paintings that can't be readily resolved. It should take time, cause trouble, and pull you back to look at it, look at it more; not sit in a space or on a wall and be some comfortable, decorative object.
I also understand there is a fine line between just plain old bad, uninteresting painting, and a painting that frustrates, gets under your skin a little, and commands some attention. It's the latter that drives me to keep doing this weird activity ( in this day and age) we call painting.
I pursue no objectives, no system, no tendency; I have no program, no style, no direction. I have no time for specialized concerns, working themes or variations that lead to mastery. I steer clear of definitions. I don’t know what I want. I am inconsistent, noncommittal, passive; I like the indefinite, the boundless; I like continual uncertainty.
—Gerhard Richter
Me, too.
—Manuel Ocampo
Me, three.
_Sebastian Alsfeld
