Zeph Luck
artist statment
In our current age of instant information and technology we have lost our sense of questioning and curiosity. People no longer see the awe and wonder that is in our everyday surroundings. It is this part of the world that inspires my art; looking at the quotidian flora and fauna that we see in and around our human world. I believe that the ecosystems that we encounter daily are just as interesting and beautiful as the ones in far away exotic places. All we need to do is to take the time to stop and admire them. I create drawings through a process of adding, subtracting, and interweaving the different components until I reach a balanced composition of visual complexity. Never being afraid of what parts of subjects might get covered through the process. I purposely hide features like the eyes of animals to keep the viewer from focusing heavily in one location. I compose my images like puzzles that need time to find their way through searching for the individuals that are part of the greater whole. In this process of creating, I decontextualize the flora and fauna from how they are expected to appear. This changes the subjects from just being an animal or plant turning it into something more, inviting the viewer to see them in a different way, reconsider them, and use their own lexicon to create an individual understanding of the painting. Through this experience, I hope to remind the viewer to stop, slow down, and really look at the world around us and see that beauty and wonder is in our homes and right outside our door.
Bio
I have been inspired by nature for as long as I can remember. I grew up playing in the ocean in Tidewater Virginia and at the Chesapeake Bay, then moved to a cabin in the mountains of North Carolina. My deep connection to these places and the flora and fauna that are part of the ecosystems inspire the basis of my artistic practice.
In addition to growing up surrounded by nature, my own cancer diagnoses has shown me the importance of taking the time to slow down and appreciate the things around me. In 2012, I was diagnosed with T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, and I received cranial radiation treatments and four years of chemotherapy. A few years later in 2017 I was diagnosed with a second unrelated cancer, Ewing's sarcoma in the humerus of my dominant right arm. The treatment for this cancer was heavy chemotherapy that required weeklong stays in the hospital and surgery to remove the humerus bone and replace it with an internal metal prosthetic. The surgical procedure included shoulder and elbow replacements and the metal rod that connects them in place of the bone. Luckily, I only have a partial disability of movement in that arm and full control and feeling in my hand. While these experiences and injuries have not majorly affected my ability to create, the countless hours spent in the hospital allowed me to see the beauty that can be found every day and all around me.
In my current artwork, I focus on this idea of the quotidian of life that is around us all the time. I believe that the ecosystems that we encounter everyday are just as interesting and beautiful as the ones in far away exotic places. All we need to do is to take the time to stop and admire them. I work in several different mediums including Painting, Drawing, and Printmaking. But the methods I use for composing my art are universal throughout the varying mediums. I create my compositions through a process of adding, subtracting and interweaving of subjects until I reach a balanced composition of visual complexity. Never being afraid of what parts of subjects might get covered through the process. I purposely hide features like the eyes of animals to keep the viewer from focusing too heavily in one location. I create my images like puzzles that need time to find their way through searching for the subjects revealing the individuals that are part of the whole image just as I learned to interweave in the different aspects of my life and illnesses to come to terms with who I am.