Steven Charles

Artist Statement:

I am interested in creating problems. Painting is a vehicle for me to dedicate myself to something I know won’t work. Abstract painting is the most confusing dilemma I have encountered–it is this confusion that motivates me. I am not a believer. I am in search of holes and gaps. When I start a painting I don’t plan or sketch, I just begin. The beginning could be simple drips, splashes or paint shot out of a squeeze bottle.

Then I work into the initial marks with a process I call targeting. This is where a shape is filled in with a smaller shape leaving only the outer edge of the first shape showing. This process is repeated until the amount of shape being covered is reduced to the smallest part possible with the selected brush. Each painting begins to generate a logic unique to it’s own composition. Even though it’s obvious that I am making these paintings, the end results always educate me on what I’m doing. The impetus for this work is my optimism, although what I am optimistic about constantly escapes me.

–Steven Charles, 2002

Steven Charles on artnet