Bob Brock (Missouri)  curriculum vitae
“I look at a reality of nature that is greater than our concept of it. However one chooses to represent nature, it stays independent of expectations. It is this “other” I pursue. I approach art as a truth that lies in nature. I set up the still life not to paint objects, but to paint my sensation of form and color. Bergson states that all experiences of nature are an ever-changing series of durations--one after another. Through this realization of the ever-changing, our human point of perception can view constants that remain stable enough for study. This is where I place the truths in nature. I attempt to remain faithful to that vision, by painting relationships that are visually juxtaposed around that truth. I use these observations of color and form as subject matter. As I construct my images I find the relief-like space that does not lose connection with the surface plane and a close series of relationships in color and form that relate to the pictorial horizontals and verticals of the rectangle. At some point the picture plane and canvas rectangle become one. I find that my visual statements alter under continued examination but as they sustain themselves in an enlarged painting experience, nature becomes enlarged to take me a step closer to that which I see as true. I approach art with this scientific spirit. I find my re-evaluative approach sharpens my vision of painting and in return it continually sharpens my experience of nature.”

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