Knobs Gauges and Switches Painting

John Eastman Artist Statement & Bio I am a painter, writer, and mixed media artist deeply engaged in multi-disciplined projects. My work is about addressing and confronting dead on, the deep emotions and experiences within life; the euphoric highs, the depth of lows, struggles and triumphs, risk taking, winning, losing everything, grieving, surviving, and coming back, again and again, to reinvent. I am welled up by the richness of visual, sound, and written material in life. What I seek with the body of my work, is to reach a intense and direct conveyance to the viewer. I am seeking to share a connection. I am highly influenced by political and world news, musical lyrics, architectural work, the minimal design approach of products and spaces, and movie directors and their works. Much of my work involves a reference to minimalism. I am moved by low profile, low function, low tech items as their simplicity and function seem to say, here I am, enjoy my transparency, enjoy my simplicity and peacefulness. Bio John Eastman is a painter, writer, and mixed media artist. He currently works and resides in a studio loft in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 2010 while working with Urban Tree Forge in Pittsburgh he created large scale sculpture and furniture projects individually and in collaboration with other artists. Wood is now an integral part of his material use to produce coffee tables, farm tables, and functional objects. His education of abstract art and skills are self-taught. Artistic influences include Massive Attack, Portishead, Bjork, Sigur Ross, Dead Can Dance, Architect Rem Koolhaas, and movie director Stanley Kubrick. Traditional artistic influences include Gerhard Richter, Kandinsky, DeKooning, Donald Judd, Anselm Kiefer, and Mark Rothko. Mr. Eastman has exhibited in numerous galleries and exhibits. Recent exhibits include Austerity and Self-Sustainability at FE Gallery www.fegallery.org, WOOD exhibit at the Elan Fine Art Gallery in Sewickley PA, (www.elanarts.com), Pittsburgh Center for the Arts "Extremes" exhibit in May 2011, Christine Frechard Gallery May 2010, Associated Artists of Pittsburgh Annual at The Carnegie Museum of Art and The Andy Warhol Museum. Mr. Eastman was the curator of a photographic montage exhibit at Digging Pitt Too Gallery in Lawrenceville PA in April of 2007 and the First Avenue Sculpture Series in 2009, as well as the WOOD exhibit in September of 2011 at Elan Fine Art Gallery.