Alan Samalin

I always feel that the work should 'speak' for itself, and also that writing for me is an inadequate means of expression. Nonetheless, I appreciate the need for a 'few words from the artist', and am willing as ever to give it a try.
This series is my latest attempt to create pieces made up of multiple images. Paintings are primarily made to be looked at, and the act of looking on the part of the viewer finishes the job of the painter. I always hope hope that after I paint the pictures and arrange them into a narrative, the viewer will find something worth the effort and time required to look at paintings. That something is also what I look for in my work, and it is what causes me to continue to love looking a paintings.

Some of the 'themes' I find myself dealing with in my painting include: abstraction v. representation; different styles of representation; types of visual structures and visual anomalies; art history as a topic, with 20th century painting as the main subject; American culture specifically and world culture in general; puzzles and games; frames, and what they imply; and such personal things that can be tucked into the work for my own amusement. I hope these few words do not detract from the paintings themselves.