The Blue Guitar Artist Statement
This body of work is unusual in the sense that it has no identifiable thread, no specific goal, no message, and no specific beginning.
In this effort, I tested new canvas treatments, sizes, fabric, and restricted my palette of colors. Often it felt as if I were stumbling through the dark, slipping on a slick surface, and constantly failing to understand what was occurring. Eventually, I grew to believe that limiting choices increased my options and provided me with new tools to create with.
As usual, the paintings showed me the way.
Many pieces did not come to completion and were sacrificed as an offering to the scrap heap. The work that remains, stands firmly on a foundation of the wrong turns and lessons learned from chances taken.
Now, in this moment of reflection to what has been created, I am once again struck with the melancholy that comes with the end of a chapter. Once again, I am eager to discover what waits for me as I turn the page.
Eric Anfinson
January, 2012
“Ericʼs painting has always focused on the emotional, the colorful, and the deeply meaningful aspects of life. One gets the sense that he has always known that art is dangerous.” “His condition forces him to look inward on a daily basis, and it is over the inner realms that art holds sway. Art, like a dream, has the capacity to bring the inner worlds to the surface. It is a master key, a threshold, and a gateway”.
“What I call the danger of Ericʼs work really began with the way he painted eyes. From the start, the bright yellows, oranges, pinks, and browns of the naked flesh of his nudes all conveyed a gentle eroticism, respectful yet penetrating. The eyes, however, were typically left empty and open. Perhaps you could fall into them. Perhaps, like mirrors, they would reflect your own soul back to you. On the whole the eyes were neutral, but that is where the danger lay like a fault-line.”
From “Art is Life” by John R. Strain
