Paul Farmer Artist
Upcoming Workshop:
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Artist Statement:
All images are copyrighted © by Paul Farmer. © COPYRIGHT 2024. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
About:
Paul Farmer received a Bachelors of Art & Design from the NCSU College of Design and an MFA from Western Carolina University. He has participated in artist residencies at The Bascom Center, Vermont Studio Center, I-Park, and Keystone Art Space. Paul's work has been exhibited across the U.S. Currently he is a full time visual arts instructor at Mitchell Community College.
As a multimedia artist, my practice ranges from painting and photography to digital collage and animation. The foundation of my studio practice is in painting. It is process driven and consists of making images with thickly applied paint that are then dried, cut into many pieces, and rearranged until resolved. It’s about the tactility of multiples and repeated actions that result in overlapping and interwoven elements. They become so heavily layered that much of what has been created becomes hidden from the viewer. This revealing-as-concealing action of paint layers is something that has always interested me. For every element that further reveals the artist’s intention, something becomes hidden beneath it.
My artistic practice has grown to include digital and lens-based media. This work often relates to light, pattern and topography. I have always been fascinated by the natural world and am especially interested in examining the act of transformation. I enjoy capturing images, especially macro photos, and turning them into collages and patterns. I sometimes also turn these into video animations consisting of rhythmic moving textural imagery with sound. While the medium is different, this digital process is very similar to the paintings.
In my mind, this all becomes a metaphor for Heidegger’s explanation on how the discovery of a new truth of being is to come about. As the world reveals things to us, nature is simultaneously concealing. Where the occurrence of this strife is seen, that’s where truth of being is revealed.