C L A I R E   H   L E R N E R

In this series of paintings, I’m primarily interested in formal relationships and have moved away from my previously representational work towards the non-objective. My reference for this approach is not found in observations of the three-dimensional world but rather from the intuitive experience of the painting process mediated by my aesthetic vision. I take inspiration from the paintings of Wassily Kandinsky, who was interested in “cosmic conflict and renewal” or that any initial mark might require another and then another until a unified whole is achieved, or that a painting is created through a series of necessary relationships determined by the process of painting itself. I’m interested in demonstrating a dialogue and interaction of form that in the end, yields an aesthetic whole. That intuitive result is often unexpected and sometimes surprising but always restrained by my aesthetic criteria. These works are arenas of aggregate chaos, a dialogue predicated on process and the arduous search for beauty and finality.