Rod Appleton

ARTIST STATEMENT

As I work on an art piece, I trust in my intuitive aesthetic as much as I do a formal analysis and my own objective determinations.

Each material I use carries with it sensuous and innate qualities, as well as referential and historical meaning. Thus, with this in mind, I involve myself in augmenting or transforming these materials into a new aesthetic through combination and contrast, such that the inherent quality of each is heightened. In so doing, much of my work employs materials that visually record the creative process in addition to the effects of nature and time, thus lending a welcomed aleatoric or 'chance accident' quality to the work.

Also, with many of my works, the straight line or grid is introduced, symbolic of a human presence in nature and the human need to structure and organize a perceived chaos. Thus, ideally, a dialogue is enacted between a material's new aesthetic and the work's conceptual concerns.