Artist Statement (short version)

More than anything else, these paintings reflect my interest in the nature of perception. Somewhere along the line I began to ask myself the question: "what is the shape of language?... as opposed to the more traditional question, what is the language of shape?". How does language influence what I see?

Artist Statement (long version)

Statement on small abstract paintings FIGURES OF SPEECH by John F. Marok

All of the following information is a point of departure for me. It is a source of much reverie and rumination and acts as a catalyst for my creative process.

The structure of my abstract paintings is derived, in large part, from my interest in language and in particular figures of speech.

I am compelled by 2 main elements:

1.The physical structure of a figure of speech

Language has a distinct and ethereal suggestion of corporeality. Written words are visual and can be seen and measured. Spoken words are also physical as they are vibrations in space, sounds that act upon our hearing. Both can conceptually illuminate a rhythmical structure in a painting.

Example: Aposiopesis Definition: Stopping a sentence in midcourse so that the statement is unfinished and that

2.The definition of a figure of speech

I am also engaged by the meaning of a figure of speech and how the meaning can shed light on the conception of space in a painting. The following example illustrates this point:

Paradox Definition: Words that are a reflection of a surface which reveals depth and the depth of reflection which reveals a surface.

Disclaimer: The artist is not responsible if the viewer cannot comprehend the relationship between the above text and his paintings. The artist himself spends most of his time in the dark, groping around gathering homeless images and forlorn ideas and lays no claim to fully grasp the concepts contained herein. He derives inexplicable comfort from the question (when used in a rhetorical sense)...Does anyone really know what's going on?