Blake Brasher

he/him

Lesley Art + Design MFA group 2, Spring 2020

Statement

I am interested in the power of abstraction to delve into big problems in understanding the nature of our existence. I wonder quite a bit about what it means to be a conscious being, and if there are other ways a conscious being might be. I have come to believe that one of the fundamental aspects of consciousness is that it is a phenomenon that happens when desperate but related systems come together to form a larger whole.

These paintings are like snapshots of mental landscapes, exploring the space between order and chaos which gives form to the conscious experience. One of the underlying themes present throughout this collection is the juxtaposition of pattern and tightly controlled but highly repetitive brush work against the uncontrollable mark making techniques such as pouring and dripping paint. I’m also using a sort of automatic drawing process and incorporating little snippets of text into the work, little distillations of epiphenomenal qualia that are omnipresent in the unquiet mind.

Taken as a whole a given painting should give the sense of being a complete system, balanced and self maintaining. A given segment might have its own system of rules and relationships, but it ties into the larger whole the way a person’s e.g. love of their child and their understanding of mathematical relationships both contribute to the conscious experience of being that person.

Bio

Blake Brasher is a visual artist working primarily in mixed media painting. His colorful abstractions are reflections on the nature of reality and what it is like to be a thinking being in a universe that is at once beautiful and terrifying. He grew up in Alaska, and has also lived in Turkey, Texas, and Arizona before moving to Massachusetts in 1997. He received his BS in Art and Design from MIT in 2003 and has been exhibiting his work publicly since 2008. His work is internationally collected, and he has participated in artist residency programs in Italy, Romania, France, New York, and Massachusetts.