Christopher Peterson: Reconfigured

“….art does not reproduce the visible; rather it makes visible.”

 

- Paul Klee

A good painting is evidence of its visual thinking, and the rhythmic paintings of Virginia based artist Christopher Peterson communicate a complex history of collaged elements that bring about a permanence of deeper symbolism. Fragments of transparent horizontal and vertical strokes seem to mark the beginning of each painting, the beginning of each experience. Daubed with circles of pigment, sometimes on either side of fissures from collaged burlap, these elements move back and forth in our subconscious between the terrestrial and the cosmic. Is a circle the moon, the sun, or simply a circle? Horizons form in our minds. Peterson's art is brought forth through an evolution of these elements, letting any given impulse push the work into places it needs to go. The result is a record of creative activity that radiates a gentle material presence.

" I paint something.  I cut it up.  I repaint it.  I cut it up again. I arrange it. I rearrange it. I do this over and over until the painting starts to say something. "

- Christopher Peterson