“My portrait-based work and Concept-Scapes emerge from the same inquiry into identity as a mutable, situational construct. While the portraits use the human figure as a direct site of examination, the Concept-Scapes extend this investigation into space itself, allowing environments, architecture, and landscape to stand in for the body. In both bodies of work, representation is intentionally unstable—shaped by memory, perception, and current events—inviting the viewer to inhabit a psychological space where self and surroundings continuously inform one another.”
Mr. Pinkman has been influenced by the skills he learned through years of creative pursuit and the lessons learned during the many personal and global crisis such as the AIDS epidemic, the 2008 housing crisis, and the COVID pandemic’s isolation. The layering in his work explores multiple narratives and perspectives within a single piece, adding visual interest and complexity.
He works with traditional materials such as canvas, paper, paint, and ink, and each surface’s limitations set the parameters. While each group of works begins with a concept, the act of creating takes on a life of its own. He intentionally uses his left hand, at times, creating strokes and lines backward. This affords him a way of overriding the habits of right-handed penmanship learned in school. As the artist says, “Each work has its own self-generated identity and works together in a conversation. I do not expect anything from them when they are completed and wait to hear others’ reactions to fully understand what they are about.”
Read more about my process and work from Philip F. Clark, author of “The ArtPoint.”