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Pandemic's Paradise

Pandemic's Paradise, Other
Pandemic's Paradise
This most recent project is a work in progress that I expect to complete before the end of August. This piece attempts to take technique and my focus to the NEXT level. Under an ever present but perhaps ill-advised relaxing of the stay-at-home orders in the summer of 2020, my creative process involved with confronting the anxiety and depression I’ve suffered from since my survival of cardiac arrest in 2012 has evolved to include the COVID-19 pandemic. New routines, changes in lifestyle, an avid interest in gardening and an acute awareness of the upheaval, suffering and grief this disease has caused humanity have fostered a personal time of isolated reflection and appreciation of my recovery to good physical and improved spiritual health. In a world fraught with strife, the motivation nature provides my art continues to strengthen, resulting in an expanding mixed media repertoire of new materials and processes with the use of acrylic mediums and gels, assemblage, and collage, building a platform to face these issues that have so profoundly affected myself and all of humankind.

I consider myself blessed. My art pursuits have not been constricted by the closing of my studio due to the Coronavirus. Indeed, my work is conducted at home, and although the environment is a handicap to many, it has been one of creative intensity and growth for me. New materials and processes in my media selections in tandem with the desire to discover new boundaries in the creative process has produced this work. It is to me a significant leap forward, and I am optimistic this leap is not off a cliff.

Mixed Media (including assemblage and collage): Acrylic paint, acrylic ink, acrylic gouache, assorted acrylic mediums and gels, acrylic resin fixative, graphite and carbon pencil, household interior and exterior consumer products and byproducts, hardboard cut outs, wood, and various brushes and pens on acrylic gesso primed hardboard panel.
  Peter Knapp
Other    27 x 31 x 1.375    $12,500.00   
Artist Statement:
Regardless of the medium or issue I have chosen throughout my life, my art has always been involved with experimentation, invention, trying something new, taking a risk and seeking solutions to the challenges these goals present. Inspired by other modern artists who have successfully developed styles and methods uniquely individual and ground breaking, I am committed to leaving a record of my work that extends the boundaries of creative process.

My current compositions have become an ongoing series that have confronted the anxiety and depression that I have suffered from since my survival of cardiac arrest in the fall of 2012. The abstract qualities and colors I see in nature have inspired my art the most, and using this inspiration as a foundation, I have been exploring my memories, feelings and emotions related to this event of life over death. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, my focus has now evolved to include dealing with this disease that as of yet has no cure.