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Donna Bernstein, Running Wind Art
Artist Statement
I have drawn horses for as long as I can remember. As a
child I would sit with my mother, an aspiring artist herself,
and let her help me form the head, and create some shading. She
always had a very soft hand.
Watching horses was as important to me as drawing them. In
fact, as I grew up it was the watching that kept me enthralled;
studying their musculature and shape, how they reshaped
themselves as they moved, what maintained balance for them as
they moved, whether slowly grazing across a field or
spontaneously bucking on a spring morning. I think I digitized
these images in my brain somehow, not wanting to stop watching
for a second, even to sketch. It was after I went home I pulled
out the drawing pads, and pencilled and fantasized about their
energy for hours.
Their form was my enlightenment; I could travel through them.
And though their form captivated me, I'm somewhat of an
abrstract expressionist at heart; simplistic, often
monochromatic; suggestive; interpretive; profoundly
energetically connected.
This was when the creation began…creating images of
horses distilled from my visual memory and imbued with my own
personal act of creation; my own distinct blend of rapturous
form and abstract stylization.
I’ve come to understand that this energetic relationship
with horses is the basis for my art - my intuitive
connection with their inherent personality. I find they express
everything I could want to say. Beauty, power, movement,
sensuality, intelligence, freedom – all of the life
values I hold dear are their domain. My sense of artistic
expression was never so much a photographic reproduction of a
horse, as much as an energetic imprint of what I see in them.
They are my muse.
My favorite tool is my hands. I actually didn’t realize
this until, almost by accident, well into my forties, I took a
course on sculpting horses. I found that the years of study and
expression let me immediately mold a powerful three-dimensional
equus that thrilled me. I couldn’t believe I had waited
so long to sculpt! It made me realize that somehow my hands
know. The very next paintings I started working on I used
those tools in a whole new way; both liberating and expressive,
in a way I hadn’t experienced, my hands brushed the
horse’s form into existence right in front of me.
I love creating something that didn’t exist before;
something that I know is exclusively mine. Horses have been
idolized and painted since the days of cave men; they are not a
new subject, to say the least. But I believe as an individual I
know I bring something new to the table in this feast we call
art, and that is my own personal reward. Something rich and new
that can be perceived through the elegant innocence of these
incredible animals.
c. 2003 Running Wind Art
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