« A steadfast optimism underpins each of my paintings. Embracing the element of chance, they begin spontaneously, with watery stains, drips, or brush marks. In subsequent layers, improvisation gives way to strategic decision making, often in the form of meticulously rendered geometric gradients. Risk plays an essential role. Mistakes become stepping stones paving the path forward. Resolution is commonly achieved through a willingness to destroy what had been built up prior. Altogether, my works revel in the inherent dualities of paint, as both object and artifice, and canvas, as both a surface and a window. Painting has the potential to create spaces that are acceptable to our eyes and minds despite their conflicting logics. The negative space of the raw fabric support can become a positive element within the composition, while simultaneously reinforcing the flatness of the plane. Brushmarks that might represent the earliest beginnings initially appear as though they were the finishing touches. By piecing together visual clues, traces and textures left behind in the paint, the viewer is able to reconstruct the history of its creation, like a magic trick that still deceives despite revealing the source of its illusion. »

ChristopherKuhn.com