Peter Eastman

My work is a search for equilibrium and harmonic beauty, perhaps best found in natural shapes, patterns, colors, and textures. Each work is a record of a pursuit that I would compare to gold mining or pearl diving. Preparation is complex, deliberate, and essential. And the result is usually a surprise - a surprise that is sought after.

The first event of every piece is the invention of a shape. With a myriad of inspirations including art history, architecture, literature, and music, that shape is arrived at by a combination of intuitive drawing and distillation. Step 2 is to cut out the shape, and then exploit it as vehicle for printing, as stencil, and/or as collage material. Then, using dry pigment and shellac, and often working with translucent Japanese paper, I manipulate both front and back of the paper to arrive at a finished image that I hope appears to emanate from within.

A resident of Brooklyn, I was a cultural migrant to NYC in my early-twenties. (Scratch just below the surface and you still find a California surfer.) I hold two university degrees: a Bachelor's in Dramatic Literature from U.C. Berkeley, and a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Design from N.Y.U. For three decades I've worked professionally as a Scene Designer in Theatre and Film, with many projects for national and international theatre, opera, and dance companies. Currently, I serve as Scene Design associate for the musical The Lion King.

Lessons learned designing Theatre - discipline, experimentation, the primacy of Drawing – guide my artistic process. Working in Theatre teaches you to respect process. Often, many hours of preparation and rehearsal go into making a single moment appear effortless. Likewise in my studio, the same basic dynamic of extensive preparation and effortless-seeming delivery generates the best results.

The Other Art Fair Brooklyn, November 2019
The Other Art Fair London, March 2019
The Other Art Fair Brooklyn, July 2021