Artist Statement Michael Sherman Phone: 908-313-6955 Email: Michael_Sherman_Art I watch paint dry. My art is inspired by my fascination. From the beginning I have been focused on the materials themselves as my primary subject. I’m using my inner and life experience as a stage to explore my passion for the art materials. I respond to them and have built into my work this reciprocating love of the material. The process of looking at paint inspires more painting. My work finds a narrative which connects to my life. I find that this technique or that mark says elation or pain. I notice relations that make illusions of light, depth, distance and form. I see the materials telling me about themselves and my mind gives them a context. I see many connections with ways of working the material that bring styles and techniques to life. I think how these things were used by the old masters and my contemporaries. I paint allusion into my work. Then problems hit. The rent, my family, friends, cars, jobs, habits, health, limits, horizons. Who am I? I paint this into that. I use symbols for angst or euphoria. I respond to life with paint. The many different events causing a different style or technique. My work is seemingly diverse but as a whole, the common thread of my passion is what brings them together. One painting may be splatter while the next is refined realism. The usages of materials change to best illuminate my passion for creating. I am in an ever expanding horizon of art that I want to make but am limited only by my means for making it. Michael Sherman