Statement


I have always felt a constant need to create images and have continually explored this endlessly fascinating world of colors, forms, lines, and textures.

My most current work is acrylic on canvas. I am especially concerned with large-scale formats although my works range from 20 x 20 cm to 2 x 2 meters in size. It is a very time-consuming process, which can take up to several months to complete a piece and, on a rare occasion, up to a year. My works are not painted on an easel but laid flat on the floor. There is always a base color, above which all other layers are placed. Each layer is painted with very wide, flat Korean brushes, which allow the paint to be distributed in washes onto the surface of the canvas very evenly. The paint is watered down so that it has a similar feel to watercolor. Using this technique, a series of transparencies is achieved which are carefully placed in the composition. My paintings are both planned and intuitively created: I often have a general idea of where I want the work to go, but in the end it is only through an intuitive process that I discover what it actually is to become.

At times, just one simple shape is placed on the canvas. At other times, an endless amount of shapes fill the space, creating a densely packed composition of translucent layers, a juxtaposition of order and chaos. The shapes are both tangible and intangible. They surface and disappear. My intention is to create a composition in which there is a harmonious yet subtle tension between the forms.

It has never been my intention to convey a “particular” message. What I do is simply a result of my interaction, a conversation with the actual medium. Each painting is a link to the next, a glimpse into a metamorphosis. My work stems from a basic need to create. It is not about any one piece in particular but more about a life-long process of exploration.

Michelle Concepción