[February 9, 2006] Paul Kolker: “The ink dot project” — Inspired by reflections in a mirror and the fractionation and distortion by waffle–glass, Kolker creates visual tension in his paintings through a process of image deconstruction into elemental colors and dots. Like the Rorschach ink blot, the paintings are symmetrical mirror images. At the centerfold, the image becomes obscure, anamorphic and subject to the observer’s interpretation. “What you see is what ‘you’ see”.
In his painting, le cirque 2005, Kolker recreates the last supper at Sirio Maccioni’s Le Cirque 2000 restaurant. Kolker depicts Charlie Chaplin, the five Ringling brothers, Barnum and Bailey and their mirror images. Like Dr. Rorschach’s ink blot test, Kolker’s ink dot paintings engage the viewer to enter, figuratively, into the painting and create a virtual and personal narrative.
Kolker’s work is particularly oriented in substantive detail and successive procedural steps; the discipline of the surgeon. The artist is Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery at North Shore LIJ / Glen Cove Hospital on Long Island.
Paul Kolker: The ink dot project — Opening February 9, 2006.