Daniel Ketelhut: “Figmented Reality”

From the Artist:

Figmented Reality is a group of oil paintings, most of which were completed within the past 18 months.  The imagery in the paintings are figments of my imagination – manifestations of subconscious articulations of shape and form.  The figments are born in the matrix of the sketchbook, in which masses of chaotic scribbles are alchemically transmuted into articulable forms.  In a series of preparatory studies, they then go through a sort of adolescent phase – a fuller development of line, form, value and color. The paintings themselves represent their final maturation – completed, but, like all living things, ripe with potential for further growth and change, which ultimately takes place in the mind of the viewer.

Born of my lifelong fascination of the strange and fantastic, I see these figments as living beings – bizarre, otherworldly entities.  Their biomorphic shapes and forms, inexact and uncertain of final structure, suggest the ever changing nature of reality and of our perceptions thereof.  The layered, often drippy paint, applied as transparent glazes and opaque scumbles, adds to the mutability of the scene.  During the process of creation, the series has evolved organically through experimentation of technique and paint handling.  The paintings are given evocative, open-ended titles based on how I perceive the piece and draw on my own life experience – often inspired by song lyrics and poetic lines – filtered through my own imagination.

Daniel Ketelhut graduated in 1990 from San Diego State University with a BA in Art, emphasis in studio art, and was recognized with distinction in his major. He currently resides in San Diego, California.