Zara Idelson

I make easel-sized paintings. The mater of paint is where my process begins and ends. I want to be surprised by the last mark as much as I am deflated by the first. I value the facts that a decision on the size and the way the canvas is prepared influences the whole nature of the object while not impeding its possibilities. It is an environment where chance and accidents come into play offering unexpected solutions and illusionistic qualities.

As a sequence, the paintings are uneasily defined. Sometimes reacting to each other incoherently. To me figuration and abstraction are not separate ideologies, simply facts of painting. So my paintings are about the act itself. Still, I find that the historical weight of painting is forever interrupting the act like a reminder that as practitioner one has a responsibility to understand and react to the past and consequently assume a position.

Another preoccupation is to try and understand the utility of painting and it's relation to design and craft. Through installation, framing and wood carving I explore this relation.

Zara Idelson