Featured Artist Peter Seltzer

Painter Peter Seltzer draws on a daily meditation and spiritual practice to inspire his artwork. Visit his website to see more.

 

 

I like to create art that is both personal and universal. Much of the imagery I envision is born of a long-standing daily meditation practice. Over time, this practice has had a dramatic impact on my life. In fact, I can honestly say that I wouldn’t be an artist today if I hadn’t adopted the practice of meditation years ago. As a result, I have an enduring fascination with the process and the experiences that emerge.

 

 

The images, elements and symbols in my compositions relate specifically to the growth and expansion of spiritual experience and its goal, self-realization. It’s the quest for self-realization that drives us along the journey we must all undertake at some point. These paintings are a meeting of the visible material world with the inner immaterial world we all have access to, with some effort. It is here, in this interior space, that the spiritual world makes itself known.

 

 

On this journey there are many experiences, milestones and emotions, such as the sense of urgency and yearning for completion, that come as a result of this practice. Painting is a way to communicate or fix these occurrences.

 

 

The nature of these experiences can be highly individual or universal. I don’t want to pin the viewer down to one interpretation—mine. This is why I like to build into my compositions a certain amount of ambiguity. While there is specific intention or meaning I’m trying to express in my paintings, I want the viewer to be able to find their own narrative.

 

 

When I had my first museum solo show at the Butler Institute of American Art, Director Dr. Louis Zona wrote some wonderful comments about my work:

But it is more than the razzle dazzle (of masterful technique) that draws us to Seltzer’s work. This is an artist who enjoys ideas and who challenges himself continually to create works that draw strength from concepts.

 

 

I think he “got it.” His full assessment of the show can be read on my website. Just click on “About the Artist” in the menu.

 

 

Color is very important to me, and I tend to express and emphasize variety in each piece. The universe expresses itself in a multitude of ways. I lean in this direction as well. However important color is to me, it is subordinate to light and how it reveals form. This is endlessly beautiful to me.

 

 

What can be difficult to recognize when looking at my paintings is that quite often they are not painted entirely from life. I love the challenge of combining elements painted from life with those painted from my imagination. Over time and with experience, I have developed the ability to see in my mind’s eye how invented forms would behave in the same source of light as those elements painted from life. The result is that this completely untethers my creativity.

 

Artist Peter Seltzer invites you to follow him on Facebook.

 

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