ARTIST’S STATEMENT

From a more narrative context my work evolves toward the exploration of privacy and intimacy juxtaposed with the public domain in which we live. The impulse, I believe, arises from observation of the human predicament revealed through the disparate and often unexpected: anonymous stains on a sidewalk that hint at human and animal forms, crushed cans, lost gloves, markings in uncured concrete. Random, overlooked objects and images of the city serve, for my purposes, as archaeological evidence of habitation.

The process begins with research and collection, which usually involves much walking with a camera stashed and ready. The result is a studio that resembles a museum of urban detritus. I sometimes make photographic transfers from photos I've taken and incorporate them, alone with other modes of technology and found materials, with traditional painting methods.

These constructions, in particular their rootedness in common imagery, are continually transforming toward the iconic. And now, subtle drawings of my more narrative beginnings are finding their way back into small areas of the work, recalling aboriginal imagery, which, in its own way, also served as a record of habitation. Ultimately I want to explore the inexplicably visual dimensions that might reveal our transitory, vulnerable lives.

HARRY BERNARD