FRAN BULL
The Art Life
September 1 – October 15, 2023
Opening
Friday, September 1, 5-8pm
Artist Talk
Saturday, September 30, 5pm
“Making art is my way of life, one I have pursued since childhood. Through art I am able to express my thoughts, concerns, visions and all that I am. I can indulge in the joys of drawing, painting, print making and sculpting, turning these activities towards the deepest and most serious ends as visual expressions. In an almost shamanic sense, I use the prima materia of my life as a resource for my art.”
FRAN BULL— The Art Life
In my art, I call upon both figuration and abstraction. Within cycles of inspiration, I flesh out my ideas through painting, sculpture, and printmaking. The questions before me at all times are: what images are needed as emblems of consciousness in our world today? How may I confront, through art, the pressing issues of our time? What stories might reveal something new about the nature of our human existence? I aspire to serve these larger imperatives.
I bring disparate themes and elements together in order to create new syntheses of idea and form. Yet, in some ways, my approach is conservative: I am inspired by the art and beliefs of old civilizations. I bring them forward to make something new.
I think the artist functions as a kind of shaman, a mediator between worlds. To this end, I attempt to travel to the edges of my own being. I am charged with the task of embodying in visual form, insights gained, and discoveries made on my artist’s journey.
I want to be able to show upon completion of a work, “This, too, is art. And, this.”
~Fran Bull
Fran Bull’s Artist Talk at Mitchell•Giddings Fine Arts on the evening of September 30, 2023