This summer at Kenneth Paul Lesko Gallery, two artists draw their inspiration from the process of painting itself. Each artist evokes an archetypal visual language, allowing imagery to emerge as a visceral progression.

Lissa Bockrath

May 11–July 14, 2012

“I try to keep an open mind and not get constrained by any definitive image. I may begin with an idea or concept, but it does not define what the final image or end result will be. Working with the inherent natural elements in the process of painting is what I relish most. The spontaneous reactions of the medium inspire me. When I trust my instincts and work intuitively, allowing a stream-of-consciousness process, the images produced are more believable and more powerful than anything I could have produced working within a linear framework. My current body of work is inspired by the power, inherent beauty and destruction of nature. I feel these paintings represent a juxtaposition of the Earth’s unparalleled power and the fragility of man.”  -Lissa Bockrath

Del Rey Loven

July 21–September 8, 2012

“My goal is to explore and cooperate with natural processes that occur when acrylic paint is subjected to a wide range of physical treatments. The drying time may be slowed to weeks; sometimes I freeze the painting, sometimes I wash off semidry paint. These processes are undertaken to return the pigments to a primordial state and to coax from them emergent patterns suggestive of natural phenomena such as liquification, gases, solidification, erosion, debris flows and sedimentation. The results speak to me in unanticipated ways of natural events (precipitation, melting ice caps, aquifers, mountain terrain, or even undersea and galactic events). I study a work in process, sometimes for years, before proceeding to the stage of combining it with other painted elements. That pondering/meditation leads me through a sustained free-association period in which I pursue knowledge of events in nature that parallel the pictorial events in the painting.”  -Del Rey Loven