Don Zurlo
Atmospheric Noise, #2Acrylic on Canvas 40 x 30 |
Opacity Is the Illusion of Nothing
I had an experience at Starbucks, looking out the window at a restaurant neon sign that malfunctioned, spelling out two different words, Liberty and Libe. One word was the restaurant ad, and the other was a nonsense syllable that I discovered had a meaning in computer programming that could be related to the first word, but seemed a contradiction to the first. In trying to make sense out of this event, I became aware of the capacity for chance happenings to expand our consciousness beyond the normal limits of our understanding. I incorporated the sign metaphor into esthetic principles I had worked with before, and used chance events to determine elements of form and color in the new paintings on which I was then working.
The rationale behind using chance as an element of design is very simple. Chance events force one to look at elements that one might not consider from one's limited personal experience. The artist has an opportunity to examine these events and incorporate new components into a composition, broadening the scope of creative possibilities, and expanding the artist's and the spectator's vision. In some ways, this relates to early 20th century principles of Dadaism, as well as mid-20th century performance art like the Happenings of Allan Kaprow and other artists.
Before Starbucks, I had been experimenting with visual metaphors for the human condition, often expressed using ambiguous space and form, as well as imagery obscured by overlapping layers of paint. After years of analyzing the ambiguities of existence, I finally concluded that there are vast dimensions of reality that are beyond the realm of our understanding. This may include dimensions of reality other than the one in which we presently exist, realities that we are not designed to recognize or decipher, though we may have a spiritual sense of something significant that is outside our reach.
I have attempted to express this transcendent nature of reality in a variety of ways using multiple dimensions of space, form, and color, including abstract images with ambiguous meaning. I noticed in earlier experiments that painting over something on a canvas does not remove it, but rather masks it, removing it only from conscious physical recognition by our eyes. We see the surface image but that image is changed by the underpainting in such a subtle way that our conscious mind does not perceive it. Through this device of rational uncertainty, one's mind gains the freedom to interpret the whole image on a very subjective and imaginative level.
I have worked the elements of random events as well as transcendent reality into my method of painting using a combination of chance, intuition, and rational decisions. I use chance in selecting the elements for starting a work, and then continue in the style of an abstract expressionist in making rapid, intuitive decisions with paint on canvas. At the end, I reevaluate my work, and make conscious aesthetic adjustments on the canvas in order to unify the composition into a coherent and integrated object. Still, there are dimensions in my work that I cannot fully understand. The sense of mystery remains. In any work, there are uncertain elements - things we see but do not know we see. Opacity is the illusion of nothing. Through a combination of transparent, translucent, and opaque layers, I have attempted to present images that both reflect and transcend our physical existence. Even the bare canvas contributes one out of an infinite number of meanings that exist within a painting. The meaning of a work is different for each viewer, and it changes each time the viewer looks at the same painting. One of my most frustrating experiences as an artist is trying to evaluate my own work. Each time I look at a painting, I respond to it in a different way. It is impossible to separate the painting and my perception of the painting, and my perception is constantly changing. When we look at something, we view it from the perspective of a living organism, not as though we were a camera. Our perceptions are personal, subjective, and subject to continual modifications, a function of whom we are as human beings of unfathomable depth and complexity living in a world of continual change.
Biography
Education - Rutgers University
Rutgers University, Douglass College, New Brunswick, NJ; 1964-67; MFA. Studied under Robert Watts, Pop Artist.
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ; 1956-60; AB (English/Art - Double Major),. Studied under Allan Kaprow.
Teaching Experience
Assistant Professor of Art, Allen University, Columbia, SC 1989-99
Assistant Professor of Art, SC State University, Orangeburg, SC 1973-78
Art Exhibitions
Group Exhibitions
2008 if ART Gallery, Columbia, SC
2008 McKissick Museum, USC, Columbia, SC
2006, 2007, 2008 Gallery 80808, Columbia, SC
2005 CityArt, Columbia, SC
2004 Idylwild Arts, Columbia, SC
2003 The Art Garage, Columbia, SC
1995 South Carolina Watercolor Society 18th Annual Exhibition, USC, Aiken 1981 Soter Gallery, Macon, GA 1980 SC Arts Commission Annual Exhibition 1980, Clemson University
1979 Artists' Guild of Columbia Spring Show, Columbia, SC
1978 28th Annual Guild of South Carolina Artist's Exhibition, McKissick Museum, Columbia, SC
1977 Heritage Gallery, Columbia, SC
1976 SC State University, Orangeburg, SC
1975 Springs Mills Traveling Art Show, Fort Mill, SC
1974 Florida A & M University Art Gallery
1971 New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ
1971 Moravian College, Bethlehem, PA
1968, 1969 Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
1967 Luminism, George Washington Hotel, NYC
1967 Flint Art Institute, Flint, Michigan
1967 New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ
1967 Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
1967 Howard Wise Gallery, NYC (Lights in Orbit),
Solo Exhibitions
2006 Gallery 80808, Columbia, SC
2004 Idylwild Arts, Columbia, SC
1979 Columbia College Art Gallery, Columbia, SC
1976 Whittaker Gallery, SC State University, Orangeburg
1976 Columbia Gallery, Columbia, SC
1968 Virginia Union University Art Gallery, Richmond, VA
1967 Douglas College Art Gallery, New Brunswick, NJ
I had an experience at Starbucks, looking out the window at a restaurant neon sign that malfunctioned, spelling out two different words, Liberty and Libe. One word was the restaurant ad, and the other was a nonsense syllable that I discovered had a meaning in computer programming that could be related to the first word, but seemed a contradiction to the first. In trying to make sense out of this event, I became aware of the capacity for chance happenings to expand our consciousness beyond the normal limits of our understanding. I incorporated the sign metaphor into esthetic principles I had worked with before, and used chance events to determine elements of form and color in the new paintings on which I was then working.
The rationale behind using chance as an element of design is very simple. Chance events force one to look at elements that one might not consider from one's limited personal experience. The artist has an opportunity to examine these events and incorporate new components into a composition, broadening the scope of creative possibilities, and expanding the artist's and the spectator's vision. In some ways, this relates to early 20th century principles of Dadaism, as well as mid-20th century performance art like the Happenings of Allan Kaprow and other artists.
Before Starbucks, I had been experimenting with visual metaphors for the human condition, often expressed using ambiguous space and form, as well as imagery obscured by overlapping layers of paint. After years of analyzing the ambiguities of existence, I finally concluded that there are vast dimensions of reality that are beyond the realm of our understanding. This may include dimensions of reality other than the one in which we presently exist, realities that we are not designed to recognize or decipher, though we may have a spiritual sense of something significant that is outside our reach.
I have attempted to express this transcendent nature of reality in a variety of ways using multiple dimensions of space, form, and color, including abstract images with ambiguous meaning. I noticed in earlier experiments that painting over something on a canvas does not remove it, but rather masks it, removing it only from conscious physical recognition by our eyes. We see the surface image but that image is changed by the underpainting in such a subtle way that our conscious mind does not perceive it. Through this device of rational uncertainty, one's mind gains the freedom to interpret the whole image on a very subjective and imaginative level.
I have worked the elements of random events as well as transcendent reality into my method of painting using a combination of chance, intuition, and rational decisions. I use chance in selecting the elements for starting a work, and then continue in the style of an abstract expressionist in making rapid, intuitive decisions with paint on canvas. At the end, I reevaluate my work, and make conscious aesthetic adjustments on the canvas in order to unify the composition into a coherent and integrated object. Still, there are dimensions in my work that I cannot fully understand. The sense of mystery remains. In any work, there are uncertain elements - things we see but do not know we see. Opacity is the illusion of nothing. Through a combination of transparent, translucent, and opaque layers, I have attempted to present images that both reflect and transcend our physical existence. Even the bare canvas contributes one out of an infinite number of meanings that exist within a painting. The meaning of a work is different for each viewer, and it changes each time the viewer looks at the same painting. One of my most frustrating experiences as an artist is trying to evaluate my own work. Each time I look at a painting, I respond to it in a different way. It is impossible to separate the painting and my perception of the painting, and my perception is constantly changing. When we look at something, we view it from the perspective of a living organism, not as though we were a camera. Our perceptions are personal, subjective, and subject to continual modifications, a function of whom we are as human beings of unfathomable depth and complexity living in a world of continual change.
Biography
Education - Rutgers University
Rutgers University, Douglass College, New Brunswick, NJ; 1964-67; MFA. Studied under Robert Watts, Pop Artist.
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ; 1956-60; AB (English/Art - Double Major),. Studied under Allan Kaprow.
Teaching Experience
Assistant Professor of Art, Allen University, Columbia, SC 1989-99
Assistant Professor of Art, SC State University, Orangeburg, SC 1973-78
Art Exhibitions
Group Exhibitions
2008 if ART Gallery, Columbia, SC
2008 McKissick Museum, USC, Columbia, SC
2006, 2007, 2008 Gallery 80808, Columbia, SC
2005 CityArt, Columbia, SC
2004 Idylwild Arts, Columbia, SC
2003 The Art Garage, Columbia, SC
1995 South Carolina Watercolor Society 18th Annual Exhibition, USC, Aiken 1981 Soter Gallery, Macon, GA 1980 SC Arts Commission Annual Exhibition 1980, Clemson University
1979 Artists' Guild of Columbia Spring Show, Columbia, SC
1978 28th Annual Guild of South Carolina Artist's Exhibition, McKissick Museum, Columbia, SC
1977 Heritage Gallery, Columbia, SC
1976 SC State University, Orangeburg, SC
1975 Springs Mills Traveling Art Show, Fort Mill, SC
1974 Florida A & M University Art Gallery
1971 New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ
1971 Moravian College, Bethlehem, PA
1968, 1969 Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
1967 Luminism, George Washington Hotel, NYC
1967 Flint Art Institute, Flint, Michigan
1967 New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ
1967 Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
1967 Howard Wise Gallery, NYC (Lights in Orbit),
Solo Exhibitions
2006 Gallery 80808, Columbia, SC
2004 Idylwild Arts, Columbia, SC
1979 Columbia College Art Gallery, Columbia, SC
1976 Whittaker Gallery, SC State University, Orangeburg
1976 Columbia Gallery, Columbia, SC
1968 Virginia Union University Art Gallery, Richmond, VA
1967 Douglas College Art Gallery, New Brunswick, NJ