Nice, Ice Baby Collage

Robert Tavani drew incessantly as a child and at art school in the 1980's he became aware of his ability to "paint". The '80's art world, including music and performance, was big, bold, pluralistic and celebratory. It was a great time to be an art student because there was so much the professors hated! That strong reaction inspired much meaningful discussion. Now, he makes the best paintings he can by assembling a variety of visual cues and processes. He attempts to steer his painting process yet realizes if he is truly engaged the painting itself has a hand on the steering wheel. "Realizing the inspiration for the painting may not be most important. To me, what matters most is the visual affect the painting has on the viewer," he stated. As I paint, I try to make things as interesting as possible. If a painting seems ordinary or boring I do something more, maybe something radical, to shake things up. I imagine, "What would a viewer think of this painting?" My paintings on canvas epitomize two of my loves: process and craft. Visually, they might remind you of Op Art, Abstract Expressionism, early modernism or process oriented movements. And yet, my paintings have a glass-like surface which contributes to their brightness, crispness and highly crafted appearances. The works on paper are intuitively assembled collages comprised of dried pieces of acrylic paint. They are highly textured, sometimes intricate, dizzying and dynamic designs. On a personal level, I remember petrified wood, Paul Cezanne's Portrait of Victor Chocquet, swirly super-balls and Ken Russell's film Altered States. In all of these examples, materials were transformed and became secondary to an effect. I like to think that my paintings transform paint into an interesting effect.