To me, the act of painting is more important than the paintings themselves. Pictures are objects, the leftovers. The process itself is what calls me. The idea of trying to create something out of nothing and knowing that every mark you make could be totally wrong. It's like walking in the dark with a cliff nearby or taking a trail in the woods and not knowing what's around the next bend. It's all about taking chances.

Evolution is an important word that I use when describing my work. Not only does the work evolve out of the painting technique itself, but the resulting images depict imaginary life processes in various stages of evolution from which new and sometimes surprising forms emerge. I feel that this dynamic and enigmatic relationship is a symbolic equivalent for the interaction of human feelings and emotions. And since every interaction creates a reaction, my forms become metaphors for the infiniteness of human behavior as it is formed and reformed by events of the outer world.

I hope that the sense of discovery that I feel when I am making these paintings is passed on to the viewer.

Stephen Rubin
Boonville, CA
July 2005