Bucci's Art

BERT MONROY
digital photo realist

February 26 - March 25, 2005

Website: www.bertmonroy.com
Email: bert@bertmonroy.com

Artist Statement
I grew up in New York City, and solitude was something I found in my paintings. They gave me a way to communicate with my surroundings in a personal way. I have always been amazed at how little people stop and look around at their surroundings. Beautiful architecture, works of art, the occasional tree in an urban setting. Each can tell countless tales yet no one ever stops to look and listen. Capturing a moment in time I try to force the viewer to stop, take a breath, and just look. Share the silence and serenity of something as mundane as a store window.

Many of my subjects are worn, decaying buildings. They seem to tell so many stories. They have seen so much, yet no one seems to care what stories they can tell. In painting them, I try to capture the souls that haunt them. You will notice an absence of people in my paintings. You know that feeling you get when you are studying a painting in a museum and suddenly someone else stands next to you? You either feel you must move on or just annoyed to be interrupted. The point is-you are distracted. In my paintings you are alone. No distractions. Just you, a place, a moment.

My paintings might not be what people want to hang over their couch, but that is not my goal in creating them. I paint scenes that mean something to me. Many of them have jumped out at me as I pass them on the street. Others I have studied for months before finding the right lighting conditions.

I have heard the question a million times-"why don't you just take a photograph?" Well, for one thing, I'm not a photographer. To me, it is not the end result that is important-it is the journey. It is the challenge of recreating every bit needed to make a scene come to life. In a painting of a neon sign, for instance, I will paint the tiniest bit of rust around a screw that no one will ever notice, but the sign could not exist without that screw and the rust is a consequence of life.

Unlike a photograph, everything in my paintings is in focus. It is like being there. Wherever your eye travels it will come into focus.

Before the computer, my paintings were very similar in style and content. They just took a lot longer to produce. The computer also allows me to create details that were virtually impossible to create traditionally. With the computer, the creative process flows unabated. The medium becomes transparent. For me, the computer is the preferred medium. I paint what I see, therefore, painting with light is the perfect way for me to paint.

RESTAURANT & BAR HOURS
Lunch: Mon. - Fri. 11:30 - 2:30
Dinner: Mon. - Sat. 5:30 - 9:30

Bucci's Bar: Mon. - Fri. 2:30 - 5:30
Serving soup, salad, panini, cocktails, dessert