Senior B.F.A. paper
A kind of thesis describing my senior art exhibit of paintings.
A.D.Kelley 1985

I was young when I wrote this :-)

My paintings are made up of three separate elements; the abstract idea or concept representing my perception of truth, the real world environment symbolized by the image of a female nude, and the metaphor created by the paint application itself. These three elements compose a complete statement about myself and my environment.

The concept or abstract idea is based on how I feel about the world in general. I don't like cover-ups. Cover-ups, to me, imply that there is something hidden from view. If it is hidden then all is not revealed. I want to see all that exists in the world good or bad, all together as the truth. What makes up the truth though can be distorted, frustrating, beautiful, revealing... any of the tones of existence.

My subject matter represents the real world and how I relate to it. Femininity is a powerful mystery and something that I as a male want to relate to and to know about in all its truth. The figure in my work appears as awkward as I feel in some of my relations with people and women. In other paintings the figure appears as at ease as I am with my environment.

The formal considerations, of paint application, materials used and format reinforce my conceptual directions. in my first attempts to realize my ideas in paint, I approached it traditionally with brush and oils on canvas. I found these to be unsatisfactory because all I was doing was putting down flat opaque layers of paint each additional layer covering the last with no depth or energy. I then began experimenting with a rigid masonite surface. Then in one painting that I had started with the brush, I used a palette knife to scrape away the top layers of paint to get back to the original layers, not knowing or remembering what they were. What was revealed to me was all the layers of paint representing my struggle for the truth. The masonite allowed me to be very physical with the surface and the surface could be stained and scraped. I then found that I could put down a layer of paint scrape it off, put down another layer on top scrape it off, and could repeat this process many times with the wet paint creating transparencies with all the layers visible. My painting method has evolved to a point where I put down and scrape off many layers of paint not wanting to cover-up any other layer of paint in fear of not seeing all of what is there, the' truth.

in conclusion, I feel that my paintings have combined my perceptions of my environment, the depth of my feelings towards women, and my search for the "Truth" with the actual physical method of applying layers of paint and scraping them away revealing the actual truth of my process.