Painter Chelsea Gibson

My new work deals with observation in its most fundamental form, and asks the question "what is realism to me?" For years I have been a figurative painter, and in many ways, I still regard myself in that way. However, I believe that the question of and the pervasiveness of "realism" can seriously limit a painter like myself. Because of this limitation to what is easily understandable or recognizable one can become numbed from experiencing the world or the act of painting in any really realistic way. What has been conventionally understood as realism, such as a Vermeer painting of an interior, is no more or less real than the observations of De Kooning. What is real is paint, canvas, time, color, the person that uses these things, and the person who looks at it.

My experience of painting portraits is still a large part of my current work, though it is becoming more important to me that the work be based on looking within myself and in my life with paint to make something real. I admit to myself that what I want from figuration is a very abstract thing, and vice versa. My hope is to have both as equal partners in my work, because who I am and what I want is never just one thing, it's often many things and always changing.

-Chelsea Gibson, Painter