Eric Banks

Born Far Rockaway,N.Y. Lives in Rhinebeck,NY

Artist's Statement

In the over twenty years that I have been painting, though my work has evolved and undergone several transformations, its direction and intent has remained constant. Investigations within the processes and techniques of painting, paralleling an attempt to understand that which seems beyond our ability to understand, have led me to compelling core meanings. This is what I call a kind of "spiritual alchemy," a manipulation of material and substance within the contextualization of form and space, the elemental in concert with the conceptual. The ambiguity of the images and forms arrived at through these processes is a function of the countervailing nature of conscious and subconscious activities. The subject becomes an interplay between a psychological "gestalt" and
Philosophical and poetic striving for truth, affect, and meaning.

. My work is hard to characterize either stylistically or thematically as it relies, to the greater extent, upon subconscious generation of imagery. One of my major concerns is the issue of how paint, existing as both a material, and illusory image transcends to the ephemeral realm of idea, thought,...

Queens College of the City University of New York. B.A. >Maryland Institute College of Art, Hoffberger School of Painting.