Paul Santori

About the Artist

My name is Paul E. Santori, a painter and musician living on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. I was born in Columbia, Missouri and have lived in the United States all my life. In my early years I lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma then moved to Matawan, New Jersey. In 1978 I moved to Chicago, Illinois to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where I benefited from a very open curriculum which allowed me to work in sculpture, video and performance art.  My main interest, however, was always painting and drawing. I graduated with a BFA from SAIC in 1982 and worked doing freelance gallery and museum installation and various other odd jobs, showing at occasional group shows. My interest in music began around this time and I became heavily involved in the music scene in until 1989. Circumstances in my life then led to a long hiatus from artistic activity until 2008 when I began painting again in earnest. In 2012 I moved to Falls Church, Virginia where in addition to making art I also started playing music again. In 2017, I moved to Rock Hall, Maryland where I am currently active in the local art and music scene participating in a local artisans’ market in Chestertown, Maryland.

Artist's Statement

My approach to painting is intuitive. I make a mark and I follow its lead, paying careful attention to stopping points along the way to identify the finishing point. I try to stay out of the way of the physical properties of the materials manipulating them only to the extent that each piece dictates that I do so to arrive at a point of pictorial coherence. Much of my working process involves a deliberate flirtation with figurative imagery which, as soon as I find myself going in a certain representational direction, I immediately subvert and go in another direction. This subversion is accomplished both structurally and visually through drawing and applications of paint which defy control such as pouring and flinging and using knives or drawing implements to push the paint around and structure it. The use of metallic paint also serves to block literalist interpretation. The process of the work generally occurs in one session. Keeping the paint fluid is important to allow it to interact with itself to arrive at the final image. I like to work in acrylics as it allows for this freedom of application.