David Kessler

The use of aluminum is an attempt to capture the qualities of refracted light, and to have these qualities interact with the painting. The completed image is produced both by refracted light, created by abrading the aluminum with various wire brushes; and paint, airbrushed in transparent layers. The resulting surface has a slightly holographic effect, giving the appearance of movement as the painting is viewed from different angles.Additionally, the reflected light off the metal surface coming through the transparent paint gives the painting the visual quality of being backlit, a quality which could not be achieved on a light-absorbing surface such as canvas or wood. The use of water surfaces as imagery is fascinating to me on several levels.It is a universal image that is uniquely suited to my technique because of its natural changing and shifting of light and one which allows me to work on a range of images: from the close-in and virtually abstract to the instantly recognizable. My work contains the elements of simulation, (refracted light simulating paint) and hybridization (the combination of aluminum, wire brushes, and paint) and is an attempt to create an image that contains aspects of both modernism and post-modernism.

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