"The Gatekeeper" Painting

stavecparkstudio at earthlink dot net

Art is not an end in itself. It is a method of creating awareness of the marvelous. Surrealist art reveals invisible secrets and exposes hidden surprises. Surrealism is based on a fascination with the strange and imaginary. There are treasures hidden in the human mind, an ability to bathe everyday reality in a magic light.

I am an American born in 1957. I paint images in oils and sumi inks. My artistic influences include Rene' Magritte, Odilon Redon, Max Ernst, Salvador Dali and Charles Burchfield. I take my inspiration from many things, not least of which is the written word. Authors such as Neil Gaiman and Jorge Luis Borges put me in a mindset to create images of a world that exists just behind the veil of what we perceive as our reality. World mythology is also a rich source of my inspiration with its tales of fantastic creatures and heroic deeds.

I paint in the traditional manner, with underpaintings and color glazes. I blend realistic settings with the unusual and unexpected like the flash memory of a dream or a place once visited but forgotten. My latest works are smaller in size which has enabled me to explore more images from my mind. To me, surrealism is more than just a series of random items. I want to arouse the imagination and stir something in viewers, even if they don't know it.

I work daily in my studio with Sherlock, an African Grey parrot, at my side. I play the electric bass (jazz & fusion & funk) and am a comic book reader and collector. I studied the martial art of Goshin Ju Jutsu, achieving the rank of San Dan, third degree black belt. I reside at Stavec Park in Walton Hills, Ohio with my wife, Stephanie and lots of critters.