Artist Statement
I am an abstract expressionist who creates paintings out of contemplations, emotions, and deconstructed scenes from flowers to natural landscapes. I paint to produce a symbiosis between my emotive state and the spectator’s gaze. As a musician and a visual artist, I create art with an improvisational approach. To that end, I create in a spirit of spontaneity with no particular outcome in mind. I paint visual art with the same process I would use to improvise on the piano, even in regards to tempo. When I am working on commissioned pieces, I approach the desired outcome from a place of mindfulness and contemplation with the materials at hand.
My medium is acrylic. I work with a variegated palette of color. One of my techniques is to reveal and conceal layers in a process of imbricating the textures in the painting. I veil and unveil as I paint, removing the surface layer to rediscover earlier layers of color and texture. Interacting with the spectator is as meaningful to me as creating the work; I relish witnessing the life of the painting as it shifts to a private or public gallery space. I welcome intellectual and artistic collaborations.
Biography
Arthur Zorn is a self-taught abstract impressionist who largely works with acrylic paint, found objects, and interdisciplinary mediums including music and film. His small and large-scale paintings depict deconstructed landscapes, abstracted natural objects, and emotions transcribed on the canvas. Although he was interested in the visual arts as a child (b. 1954) in the Bronx, it wasn’t until he was established in his career in music education and performance in Vermont (Lyndon State College, B.S.) that he began to experiment with artistic expression outside of the music he composed. Zorn’s first solo visual art show, aptly named “Improvisations,” took place in 2004 at the Bundy Gallery in Waitsfield, VT.
Capitalizing on his interdisciplinary background, Zorn participated in multiple programs at the Mayapple Center for the Arts and Humanities, and studied most notably with John Jerome O’Connor. At Mayapple, artists are encouraged to “cultivate imagination through artistic and intellectual cross-pollination in a distinctly twenty-first century climate.” There, Zorn experimented with the intersection between visual arts and music as he contemplated art activism, protest, and themes of climate change. His recent paintings reflect his concern with climate change and the increasingly warming planet.
Zorn’s paintings have appeared in multiple shows, venues, and art walks throughout Vermont. He was selected twice as the featured artist for the “Governor’s Art Exhibit” in Montpelier. The State of Vermont’s Supreme Court and Pavilion State Office house semi-permanent collections of Zorn’s work with forty-five paintings on display.
Zorn collaborates with private collectors who have commissioned original paintings and murals, and his paintings are housed in private collections throughout the United States including California, Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, New York, Texas, and Vermont. Zorn resides at his art studio in Barre, VT.