The Tension

My work should always be a tension between illustration and abstraction, dreams and reality, the sacred and the profane. This paradox is truth. Truth is holding two negating forces in balance as a yin and yang. Is this a battle or a cooperation. I saw the poster for the Broadway show “Wicked” and think , that’s a cooperation. The devil talking to God over coffee once a week. That is the nature of my work.

In this example, color is the abstracting element, but perspective is the reference/illustrative component. Hand, eyes, hair? Illustrative. All forming a unity of expression that is at once identifiable, and camouflaged at the same time. There is a danger is saying this out loud. Some works use formula to create composition. These types of works are in danger of becoming soulless and without meaning. So meaning, as in the first creation of Adam, is breathed into the work as part of the chaos in creating. The emotion of the creator cannot be shamelessly set aside like a passive passenger in the process, but inserted as the third actor in the works — born out of the creative suffering.

Artwork by Jules de Balincourt