Belly Laugh Painting

I am inspired by memory – more specifically the energy and feelings that stick with you well after the experiences that produced those feelings and energy have passed.  I am inspired by impressions and subtle traces after meeting someone you really get along with, or the way someone can die and still influence you just as much if not more than the living.  I am inspired by friendship and love and the space where the invisible part of the human experience happens.   I am inspired by impermanence, and the wicked force we have and feel in this world that defies it despite its matter of factness.  Hence my central thought in this pursuit: Defying Impermanence. I paint to shine light on the sometimes simple but at the same time revolutionary suchness of life.  There’s a significant amount of resilience to painting this – events and connections that have been made in life exist in perpetuity in this space regardless of our recollection or erasure of them.  There’s a powerful truth and reconciliation to it too.  No stone gets left unturned – the fact of experience is stored no matter how we talk about it or don’t.  There’s no running away from it.  No individual, group, or country can manipulate these facts in this space.   I paint little bits and pieces of this emotional/spiritual storage space, as well as windows into it, and finally vehicles that permit access to this space like the Rolodex, be it from a personal, group, community, or national level.  I start many of these paintings with a poem or letter written in charcoal, and then abstract or destroy it, to represent in a very real way the importance of a stored message existing in space despite its disappearance.  May this spatial representation empower disenfranchised individuals and communities and allow space for resolution. May it also be a constant and recurring validation of our shared experience. Studio visits available by appointment. For inquiries, please contact zabotinart@gmail.com The studio is located at 62 18th street, in Gowanus, Brooklyn.