What I’m interested in, with all my work, is simply to set up the potential for the aesthetic experience, which is essentially an exchange of energy between a person who makes or performs something, and the person who comes into contact with it and has a meaningful experience as a result. That experience is not literal or definable but sensual and felt. Since 1980 I have said that to me, subject matter in painting is just the excuse to participate in the activity of making a painting because the real communicative potential lies somewhere else. In my mind, the physical materiality of paint, and the way it’s applied, has the capability of transferring the real, physical energy of the artist, through the material, to the viewer. So since the mid ‘70s I have intentionally keep my imagery as simple and (hopefully) unconfusing as possible. I don’t want the viewer to be distracted by trying to decipher the subject matter. My hope is that the viewer can be engaged enough, just by the object itself, to arrive at that aesthetic experience.

Stuart Arends, 2021/25