Aaron Epstein

My work attempts to give form to my fascination with the possibility of imbuing inanimate objects with life. As a child I vividly remember building "machines" out of pieces of toys, canisters, Erector Sets, string, tape (whatever I could get my hands on) and believing that, when I was done, they would start walking, talking, blinking, buzzing, flying and generally becoming animated in a machine-like way.

As I grew older I focused on creating two dimensional art. Yet even in my drawings and paintings the theme of crafting animated 3-dimensional objects continued. My most recent paintings fall within the trompe l'oeil genre and have led me to a place where I have finally come full circle by creating 3-dimensional assemblages of found natural and man-made objects.

Visible in the work are the obvious themes of the the marriage of technology and nature and the fundamental balance of form, color and texture, but for me the most enticing aspect of my pieces is the implied possibility of creation. Specifically, I've intentionally not taken the pieces to an expected conclusion of having them actually move, project videos, play sounds or manifest the animated state I always believed (and now actually could) imbue them.

I've come to ...

BFA Carnegie-Mellon University

Small World July, 2013