Over the last ten years I have been fascinated by the affects of both the functional and dysfunctional examples that people are given from the very beginning of their lives.   I am particularly interested in how this plays a part in forming, the identity of an individual, a family and society.  I think it is crucial to take a hard look at this and I have been doing so in this body of work. 

     Ideally, our earliest examples have two major roles – to protect and socialize.  In today’s world those two roles are at odds with each other, as we often hold two parallel versions of ourselves, our family and society.  The idealized version is what we want others to see, and the true version holds the function and dysfunction.   It seems like I hear the topic of “family values” and “good morals” on the news and in politics every other day.  Yet it is ironic that we have this longstanding practice of hiding our private lives from each other while we have recently allowed our behavioral patterns of violence, deception, prejudice, addiction and apathy to highlight our public arenas of entertainment, commerce and politics.

     In my work I often present situations that are suggestive of these behaviors being passed from one generation to the next.  I represent this passage of time not only through the narrative of the scene, but also by letting the layers of my painting process show from the first charcoal marks to the finishing impasto strokes.  The finished work is fairly realistic but my fascination is with how the individual marks fit together to create the illusion.  Some areas are more finished, often focusing on the figures in the composition.  Other areas are left more raw and chaotic emphasizing the function of the marks.

     The figures are suggestively supported by the structural patterns that surround them.  I have learned that in painting, as in life, the structure and colors surrounding the figure are just as important as brush strokes that construct the body.  British painter Jenny Saville stated “I want people to know what it is they're looking at. At the same time, the closer they get to the painting; it's like going back into childhood. It's like an abstract piece--it becomes the landscape of the brush marks rather than just sort of an intellectual landscape.” My attempts at psychological landscapes and impasto painting are influenced by masters such a Jenny Saville, Anne Gale, Lucian Freud and Egon Sheile.  I relate to all of these painters because they are not afraid to dig, whether it is into paint, the human experience or the psychology of both.

                                                               - Gypsy Schindler