In this series of seven paintings I offered John DeFaro, I am exploring some of the momentary experiences I had while visiting Miami last December. While these oil paintings are essentially straightforward observational paintings, many of the primary techniques and issues that infiltrate my work can be found. More than anything, I want my paintings to offer a still point if you will in which to enter into a more profound relationship to the world. In painting from photos, I see the photographic image as a beginning point.

I'm not interested in copying the image exactly. I'm interested in the emotional/experiential places it might offer. I'm interested in what's behind the image---the many hidden things.

In my work, I often use a combination of techniques that I've developed over the years. In the last few years 
I often prime canvases with a medium deep gray/brown taupe. I sometimes completely submerge the base color but have found that it contributes to a toning of the colors I'm working with. I work in layers usually requiring 
time between layers so I generally work with a few paintings at the same time. While I have a certain command 
of the drawing and color and observation involved in painting, I often push against habits and formulaic 
conventions toward a hope of making work that's fresh and unfettered with technique or too self-conscious. 
I welcome little accidents and unforeseen things creeping in. Work that is too mannered and exacting often 
feels artificial. Soul comes through the play of focused intention and control interfaced with the whimsical, 
irrational and defiant.

I paint out of a need to understand. I paint as a way of grounding and melding with elements. 
Along with all the other forms of art I continue to explore (such as music, film, video, collaboration, 
performance, etc.) I continue to paint as a service vocation. Art has always functioned in service to the 
culture at hand. Artists are charged with producing things of truth. This is generally a struggle. 
It can be no other way.

JEFF HOGUE

NEAR THE SEA AND THE BEGINNING

Artist statement 

JOHN DEFARO - EVENT PROJECTS