Ed Whitmore
Artist Bio
Both of my parents were born in Poland and survived the complete destruction of their families and their way of life. I was born in the Bronx and spent my formative years living in Paterson, New Jersey, an industrial city that was home to past triumphs but now has become a place of gloom and hopelessness. I sometimes hand chisel wood planks prior to painting which gives the work a 3D effect and has distant echoes of the bas-relief panels chiseled in stone from ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. When I was a young man, I developed an interest in ancient civilizations, cave art, ancient cairns, and Earth Mother Goddess sites which all served to reinforce my yearning for a lost past, a mindset reflected in my choice of medium - the evocative build up of patina that develops as a result of the oxidation of iron copper and bronze metal effects paint. For the close observer, somber themes of decay and loss can be found in many of my pieces.