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A Screeching Whore Demands Absolution, 2002, oil on canvas, 48 x 60" |
The Fine Art of Frank Welles
"I like to think of my paintings as interior (internal) landscapes. They are semi-abstract, often using skeleton-like forms and other anatomical details from insects and various natural organisms. These metamorphic-like forms are surrounded in both limited (bounded) space as in a closed room, and unlimited (free) space, as in infinity. The visual impact lies somewhere between the contemporary English painter Francis Bacon and the medieval painter Hieronymus Bosch." Frank Welles
Frank Welles on the Bosnia Exhibit and War Art:
This is not a definitive statement of war. This is just a beginning. I'm looking for my vocabulary…the color…the texture. It's a learning process incorporating landscape, color, composition, using canvas as soil. This series of war art, as in any subject area in fine art, an ever evolving series. Judge this show as an opening paragraph, as to how I am seeing today as an artist. In the triptych the graphics create an experience of immediacy. The immediate impact-that's what graphics are about. It is a sharp image that's mirrored into your mind, slammed into your consciousness.
Why did I pick Bosnia? The fact that people were once neighbors as families and had a common existence. In the 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo, people talked about how friendly it was. And, ten years later they are tearing themselves up in a horrific war. In dealing with this subject in art, I'm exploring the possibility of expressing the horror and still come up with some hope. There's a need to experience hope. Without hope there is no existence. In looking at war art must come from hope…to experience the horrors in war and that there is something greater on the other side. The combination of war, art and hope is incredibly powerful.
Very important to me is the ever-lingering horizon line as it relates to the figure within space (distance). Space is a series of horizon lines, of a reality beyond, that leads to another and another. Reality beyond that leads to infinity, endless self. Distance and space in relation to one's self, is the beginning of infinity…my journey through infinity as I see it. As an existentialist, my relationship to infinity is a series of horizon lines as I go through each moment. If there is an answer, there is no answer, only experience of the answer.
**The Bosnia Installation can be seen in person at Frank Welles' Gallery in Rockland County, New York. Call for an appointment**
Frank Welles is an artist living in Rockland County, New York. His fine art embodies the themes of religion, love, hope, sex, and war. To get a deeper sense of this, visit his alternate website at www.EnclosuresUnlimited.com Here, you can visit the provocative Hendricke Bruegel museum, the unknown brother of the medieval artist Pieter Bruegel.
Welles wants the viewer to become involved and challenged by his fine art. The desire he has for his fine art to be interactive is important. From his landscapes to his paintings (figurative, allegorical, neo-expressionism, abstract, semi-abstract) to his installations,to his war art and to his three dimensional religious installations, including his triptychs, he exhibits his desire to bring you in as a participant. Welles has been told that Kafka would have appreciated his art, take a look and see for yourself. Frank says, "I'll send you some candy."