Artist's Statement
Paul Mindell creates photo collage "LandEscapes"
and "Portrait/Environments" from location shoots in Arizona, Montana,
New Mexico, New York, Maine, Nantucket, Quebec, the Caribbean, Mexico, France,
and Italy. City scenes include locations in New York, Santa Barbara, Paris,
Florence, Siena, and Nogales, Mexico, to name a few.
Mindell's "LandEscapes" are visual reinventions of specific sites. The sites are often identifiable, such as Cathedral Rock in Sedona, Arizona; Madison Square Park at 23rd Street in New York City; Les Deux Magots on Blvd St Germain in Paris; or the horseshoe shaped river north of Abiquiu, New Mexico. Sometimes two or more sites are combined, as in his piece "Montana Skies Gather By The Maine Coast To Taos." Each work, however, is an inventive departure from the reality of the cityscape or landscape.
Mindell's "Portrait/Environments" are probing, detailed explorations of people in their personal spaces. "Paramus Past", for example, is a college president in his office in the months before his retirement. Individuals, family, social, or business groups are photographed in a broad range of personal environments: an office, artist's studio, cable car, backyard patio. Each work is vibrantly expressive...revealing, yet mysterious.
A painter by training, Mindell was inspired to work with photographs while traveling with his daughter a decade ago. Shooting hundreds of pictures at a given scene, he cuts, crops, and rearranges them with a painterly technique that has become his personal signature.
"My photo collages reinvent the realities of my city and landscape location shoots. Each is vibrantly alive with its own unique energy and mystery. Whether seen up close or from a distance, each one draws you in. I like how that creates a sense of wonder and intrigue."
In 2002, Stamford Hospital, in Stamford, Connecticut, acquired eleven of Mindell's "LandEscapes" for the permanent collection in its new building, the Daniel and Grace Tully Health Center. These panoramic vistas are on permanent exhibit in the cardiac rehabilitation area at Tully's Health and Fitness Institute. The collages were placed in that particular location because of their inspirational nature. The art is rich in color and movement, and the pieces are invigorating for people working to regain their health.
"Paul Mindell's photo collages are magical visual explorations.
Hundreds of images combine in a skillful flow of color, texture, and form, capturing
both the mood and the substance of his landscapes and portraits."
-- Jeff Price, gallery owner/director, Artist's Market Gallery, Norwalk, Connecticut.
"Mindell's 'Near Georgia's New Mexico' depicts a desert
like landscape with rich and dramatic coloring that boarders on iridescent.
The artist's use of collage adds a unique dynamic to the images somewhat reminiscent
of David Hockney's photographs. And, it is the great detail of the landscape
that draws the viewer into the image."
-- Bruce Silverstein, judge, 22nd Annual Photography Exhibition , Feb 2002,
of the New Canaan Society for the Arts, in awarding 'First Place' to Mindell
in the Professional Color category. Mr Silverstein is director of the Silverstein
Gallery, New York.
Mindell, a resident of Connecticut since 1984, has works in private, corporate and museum collections. He received his BFA from the University of Michigan and his MAT from Rhode Island School of Design. He is Associate Professor of Art at Bergen Community College in Paramus, New Jersey.
Mindell works from his studio in Norwalk, CT. His photo
collages are in limited edition IRIS prints. Each print is available in three
sizes: 42" wide, 32" wide, and 22" wide.