I had not expected any studios to be open the winter night we attended an opening at the Loft Artists Gallery in the classic building it calls home in Stamford, CT. I had first met Paul only several weeks earlier at another gallery where I was curating an exhibition by a mutual friend. We enjoyed a lively conversation about art as the three of us hung her show.
I know what magical spaces artists’ studios can be and when I ran into Paul again at the Loft Artists show, I asked him if he would mind taking my friends and me to his studio. Frankly, he was so articulate about art when we first met that I was curious about what his own art looked like.
We all headed upstairs and into Paul’s world of what I can only describe as “Cubism re-imagined.” We were stunned. His striking paintings were everywhere; some finished, some in progress, but all bold and inviting, telling the story of his artistic journey.
There was a blank five-by-eight foot stretched canvas in the center of the studio and I wondered what his plans were for this particular painting. It clearly looked like it would be quite an undertaking. At the time I was producing a series of half hour documentaries about our creative community, and in my mind I had already envisioned an opportunity to actually watch a painting evolve. Thankfully, Paul agreed to to let us follow his creative process including the inevitable blocks and solutions that are part of the creative journey.
Over the next five months our production team visited Paul’s studio and learned about his general thought
process, the challenge of tackling such a large painting, the nuances of his techniques, his palette, and the recurring themes that run though his art. Paul is a very thoughtful painter. He is also a great communicator
who is able to break down the creative process into understandable terms. It was inspiring to to see that
large canvas come to life before our eyes.
Paul has successfully re-imagined cubism and made it his own in a fresh new way. He presents a world
that is confusing and illogical but with glimpses of great beauty and wonder. One can get lost in the deftly
painted passages within each painting; a journey of opposites light and dark, joy and sorrow hinting at the
dual nature that lives within each of us.
The gift that Paul Larson’s work brings to us all is the gift of discovering something about ourselves in his paintings. It might be something familiar or something surprising but it is always something that provides insight. This is a gift that few artists can offer.
As Paul says, “In the end, words may be inadequate to describe artwork. After all a picture is worth a thousand of them isn’t it?” I totally agree.
Leslie Mueller
Executive Producer
Museum Access / Public Television Series
