Elias Pagonis

I work as an artist for every trite reason given by every artist. I recall George R saying, during one of his lectures, that art can not be defined, that it is not utilitarian. It has no function. To say that art addresses the spirit is to say that art addresses something that has no tangible substance; that thinking, motivating, feeling part of a man, the soul, as distinguished from the body, mind, and intellect. There are many examples of something non-tangible effecting something non-discript. My abstract paintings have a Byzantine reference, where the 'spirit' was understood to be a concrete aspect of the world. My landscape refer to my love for nature, to her sensuous touches as I moved through her in my childhood, in the back wilderness of the Tulameen area. Mrs. Petch told me that I should not point at something and just say "look at that". "You need to say what 'that' is that you want me to see." The definition of 'that' has become an ongoing process in my paintings. From specification to generalization, to specification and to self-discovery.

Tulameen River - 2007
oil on canvas, 42 in x 66 in