Paul Schulenburg

One of biggest challenges an artist can confront is depicting the human form. Painting, drawing and sculpture allows for many types of stylistic interpretation, but really trying to capture the essence of gesture and the personality of facial expression can be a frustrating pursuit. The various physical states of being, the infinite variety of positions, illumination and environmental placement, will evoke any number of immediate emotional responses from an observer. We all share in the fact that we are human and our first line of universal communication is through a gesture, a posture, a facial expression. A small change in the angle of a head or a tilt of the hips can completely change the emotional quality of a gesture. In focusing attention on another human being in the act of drawing, painting or sculpting the human form, an artist can feel a release from the sense of self and his or her usual conscious preoccupations. The concern is for the person perceived, the work created, and connection of shared humanity. Ideally the artist will not just make something that resembles a particular person, but will create artwork that evokes a universal feeling or emotion that transcends the outer surface.

MA

United States