Adam Erlbaum

It is tacky, but I buy pre-stretched canvases.  Each one weighs just under six pounds. I like to feel that something is there, when I lower a canvas from the easel to the floor or carry it across the room.  My studio is small, so I have a sense of being in the space when I paint. 

Finishing the deep sides of a canvas in white acrylic is just as important as furiously erasing a drawing when chasing an idea, or the seductive touch of oil color when applying it to a canvas.  Each step toward a finished work requires equal attention.  I do not let down my guard. 

I work in twos.  The first painting is for both method and execution, and the second for execution only.  Sometimes the first painting requires several attempts.  (I throw out most of my efforts.)  If a painting does not work, I go back and forth between drawing and painting until I get a result. 

The alchemists turned copper into gold.  They did not work in terms of transformation, but rather exchange.  Such an exchange takes place in my studio.  I swap dreams and focus for a finished painting (now) weighing just over six pounds.