Artist's Statement by Frank Ettenberg, 1993 (Revised in 2011)

Frank Ettenberg is interested in creating unobserved painted images - either on linen with oil colors or on paper, by monotyping with an etching press - that embody qualities of lightness and density and provide the viewer with a rich ground of pictorial and psychic associations. By means of brushed, sculptural strokes the images take shape, being neither preconceived nor copies from nature. There is a blending of remembered illusions, fotos, sensations of different locales and substances, and the play of different styles of painting which the artist has appreciated and made his own in the course of his development.

Since the mid 1980’s the work’s imagery often plays itself out against a light-soaked ground, giving the pictures a mysterious, tantalizing depth. The quality of illumination, either from inside or outside the picture plane, is a recurring presence in this body of work, as well as its sense of grandeur. A large scale exists in nearly all Ettenberg’s pictures, no matter what the actual measurements of a given piece.

Even as the artist’s imagery often shows dynamic oppositions, clashes between light and dark forces, Ettenberg’s deepest impulses reflect one's innermost longings. For instance- that we may clear and clean ourselves out, making our spirit ready and receptive; that an inner openness permits us to experience (life) to the fullest depth; simplifying our mind’s work, resolving intellectual complications, actually allows one ‘s intuition and colorful mysteries to flourish, for timeless experiences to become more evident.

It's the artist's hope that these concerns become clearly evident as the viewer studies this work over a period of time.