Artist's Statement by Frank Ettenberg, 1993 (Revised in 2008)
Since the mid 1980’s the work’s
imagery plays itself out against a light-soaked
ground, giving the pictures a mysterious,
tantalizing depth. The quality of illumination,
either from inside or outside the picture
plane, is a recurring presence in this body of
work, as well as its sense of grandeur. A large
scale exists in nearly all Ettenberg’s
pictures, no matter what the actual
measurements of a given piece.
Even as the artist’s imagery often shows dynamic oppositions, clashes between light and dark forces, Ettenberg’s deepest impulses reflect our innermost longings. For instance- that we can clear and clean ourselves out, making our spirit ready and receptive; that an inner openness permits us to experience (life) to the fullest depth; that simplifying our mind’s work, resolving intellectual complications, actually allows one ‘s intuition and colorful mysteries to flourish, for timeless experiences to become more evident.
It is this artist’s hope that these concerns become apparent as the viewer 'receives' these artworks.
Frank Ettenberg, Santa Fe, 1993 (revised in 2008)
Even as the artist’s imagery often shows dynamic oppositions, clashes between light and dark forces, Ettenberg’s deepest impulses reflect our innermost longings. For instance- that we can clear and clean ourselves out, making our spirit ready and receptive; that an inner openness permits us to experience (life) to the fullest depth; that simplifying our mind’s work, resolving intellectual complications, actually allows one ‘s intuition and colorful mysteries to flourish, for timeless experiences to become more evident.
It is this artist’s hope that these concerns become apparent as the viewer 'receives' these artworks.
Frank Ettenberg, Santa Fe, 1993 (revised in 2008)
Frank Ettenberg is interested in creating
unobserved painted images - either on linen
with oil colors or on paper, by monotyping with
an etching press - that embody qualities of
lightness and density and provide the viewer
with a rich ground of pictorial and psychic
associations. By means of brushed, sculptural
strokes the images take shape, being neither
preconceived nor copies from nature. There is a
blending of remembered illusions, sensations of
different locales and substances, and the play
of different styles of painting which the
artist has appreciated and made his own in the
course of his development.