Brian Allen Smith
 

What I find most satisfying about the art making process is that, in the healthiest of circumstances,
it is progressive. Looking back at my history, I see a distinct pattern of change, and in most cases, that change had been unpredicted. Of course, each of us experience
a constant growth, but I am enamored by how uncontrollable my life is. My days are flooded with thoughts of being somewhere else, acting as a refuge from the realities of life. As an artist, I try to address these actualities, but to embrace the visions of a very different world running wild in my head.

My work presents a passing of time. I want the elements to be in a constant state of travel, but retaining a residual permanence. The figurative elements periodically become trapped in nostalgic thought, controlled by something happening around them, but are always in search for passage.

Although we experience time as a forward momentum, this work attempts to manipulate that course by allowing many moments to exist simultaneously. The viewer is able to travel through the imagery in multiple directions, discovering unexpected relationships between the figures, space, and different types of light.

Light is the most important tool I use to orchestrate the relationship between the perceptual world and the hyperactivity in my mind. It creates a physical force that has as much mass as any solid. It is always in motion and dominates space, affecting everything it confronts. Frequently, this physicality of light skews a specific event, but at the same time discloses the entire abstraction of the image.

In the end, I want the viewer to become lost in an imagined world. By discovering heightened levels of clarity, as well as, unexplained, abstract relationships, we are forced to constantly travel to find our way.

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about the work