Artist’s Statement

Nathan is a representational painter, but not a painter of appearances. His paintings are representational pictures of emotional situations. Most of Nathan’s works are abstract environments. His recent works also incorporates figures and still lives, and this work focuses on the emotions created by the interaction between the subjects and their environments.

The experience of nature as process rather than picture depends on shifting the focus from landscape to environment. Landscape is a view of natural scenery or land, and it is a relatively detached viewpoint. The environment becomes a relationship between the subject and its surrounding external factors. His paintings demonstrate the tension between the desire to look without seeing and the desire for an unguarded interaction with our environment. This tension makes the viewer want to look deeper into the image.

Nathan’s paintings capture a brief period of time from a few minutes to a few seconds within a single image, an abstract painter’s take on time-lapsed photography. The ability to witness the passage of time in a single image intensifies the conflict between the viewer’s two roles of detached observer and emotional participant in the scene.

- Nathan DiStefano

Learn more about Nathan DiStefano’s background and education.