CARL LINSTRUM

To The Ball mixed media on panel 48 x 60 inches CLI 010-G

I am an idealist.  I long for things that are positive, uplifting and idyllic. Someone once told me that there should be no reason to hold back with the conceptual possibilities that my paintings promised.  It was ‘my world’ and I could do anything I wanted in them.  Wise words.  They have liberated me and allowed me to created spaces of beauty that are just as much a part of the past as they are the present.

We live in dangerous times.  Daily reports and dialogues alike present us with an ongoing list of threats, scares and warnings that color the way we live, creating an edge and static in the background that often makes it difficult to remain comfortable and still for long.  These real or imagined dangers also promote a compulsion to protect the ones we hold dear.

The characters in my paintings inhabit beautiful spaces that are also a bit dark and cautious.  Alert.  Ready.  There is also a sense that things are not always as they seem, a questioning of the ‘real’, a borrowing from natural history dioramas and retouched photographs.

In the end these paintings represent my yearning to trust, protect, and remain optimistic, even in times where anything can change, without warning.

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