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Steve Rubin, residue painter

Steve Rubin, Crowd Control, 2000

Steve Rubin
Crowd Control,
2000
43 x 33 inches
Oil on canvas

 I often think that there's painting and then there are pictures. The act of painting to me is more important then the paintings themselves. Pictures are objects, the residue. The process itself is what calls me. The idea of trying to create something out of nothing and knowing that every mark you make could be totally wrong. It's like walking in the fog with a cliff nearby or taking a trail in the woods and not knowing what's around the next bend.

 Evolution is an important word that I use when describing my work. Not only does the work evolve out of the painting technique itself, but the resulting images depict imaginary life processes in various stages of evolution from which new and sometimes surprising forms emerge. I feel that this dynamic and enigmatic relationship that I develop is a symbolic equivalent for the interaction of human feelings and emotions. And since every interaction creates a reaction, my forms become metaphors for the infiniteness of human behavior as it is formed and reformed by events of the outer world.

 I hope that the sense of discovery that I feel when I am making these paintings are passed on to the viewer.

 — Steve Rubin, 2001
 http://stephen-rubin.com