VICTOR SCHELFAUT

I paint oil portraiture with a focus on the close—the intimate or uncomfortable—where skin is not porcelain, but rather marred and marked. These marks can be incisions into the wet paint made with a clay sculpting tool or highlights made by scraping away to the ground layer with a towel wrapped around a thumb.     Messy is movement; it vibrates. My work examines expression, the wordless dialogue of the eyes, with a mess as backdrop. The use of imperfect form and stroke allows for shifts in perceived expression through the duration of the viewing experience. There is no space for dialogue with a placid portrait. At most, they could utter only a word.