Paul is a native of the Cincinnati area and currently attends
the University of Cincinnati where he is seeking an MFA in
drawing and painting. Paul received his BFA from Ohio
Wesleyan University in 2005 and teaches a teen/adult drawing
class at the Fitton Center for Creative Arts in Hamilton, OH.
He currently works part-time at Sweet Art of Mine where he
also does commissioned portraits of people and pets.
Paul’s work is primarily figurative with influences from
contemporary realism and figurative impressionism. Most of
his work is based on the portrait and painstakingly rendered in
pastel; his subject matter reflects an interest in self-perception
and identity. He uses bold, full color realism to capture and
magnify moments of brutal honesty or dishonesty – so that the
viewer will identify with a sense of humanity in the subject.
Paul was awarded Best of Show in 2006 for the Fitton Center’s
Greater Hamilton Art Exhibition, and his work is selected to
appear in the Manifest Gallery’s International Drawing Annual
Publication this year. Paul hopes to teach after graduation,
preferably in a University setting, and to be a maker and
student of art for life.
the University of Cincinnati where he is seeking an MFA in
drawing and painting. Paul received his BFA from Ohio
Wesleyan University in 2005 and teaches a teen/adult drawing
class at the Fitton Center for Creative Arts in Hamilton, OH.
He currently works part-time at Sweet Art of Mine where he
also does commissioned portraits of people and pets.
Paul’s work is primarily figurative with influences from
contemporary realism and figurative impressionism. Most of
his work is based on the portrait and painstakingly rendered in
pastel; his subject matter reflects an interest in self-perception
and identity. He uses bold, full color realism to capture and
magnify moments of brutal honesty or dishonesty – so that the
viewer will identify with a sense of humanity in the subject.
Paul was awarded Best of Show in 2006 for the Fitton Center’s
Greater Hamilton Art Exhibition, and his work is selected to
appear in the Manifest Gallery’s International Drawing Annual
Publication this year. Paul hopes to teach after graduation,
preferably in a University setting, and to be a maker and
student of art for life.
| ARTIST STATEMENT Today, as throughout our history, human beings have faced a crisis unique to our species: self- awareness. We are burdened with the knowledge of our own existence as no other animal on the planet has ever been. We are confronted daily with the fact that we are alive, that someday we will die, and therefore everything we do in between matters very much. Notions of past, present, future, and Identity matter far more to us than they do to a dog, an ant, or an elephant. We are an animal that strives constantly to transcend its status as an animal…to live a life of Meaning, to be something greater than we were born, and in a sense, to live forever. We seek answers to this daily in forms such as religion, status, careers, families, material possessions, and personal philosophies. I am interested in depicting the human animal as it searches, fails, and succeeds in its attempts to become something immortal…and to escape its primal nature. In working with full-color realism I use the concept of the portrait to glorify my subjects, immortalize the image, and bring a strong and often ironic sense of aesthetic beauty to the work. I feel that there is a strongly identifiable quality inherent in certain moments of brutal honesty…or dishonesty; and it is my goal to capture and bring these moments to life in order to shed subtle amounts of light on disquieting truth. |
Paul Loehle
