Cameron Zebrun - Artist Statement

 

I am, by nature, an observer and collector.  What I collect consists of images, experiences, emotional responses, and ideas.  My work draws on this catalog or atlas of images and responses as a resource to create another unique experience.  In the studio, when this material is filtered through the intuitive process I use when I build and paint, the resulting works of art provide a map or journal of the fluid, non-linear way I experience life.  This experiential cycle reinforces and renews itself through revelation and discovery.
I’ve always been fascinated by the systems and conventions used by science to interpret the physical nature of our world.  For several years my work has used these conventions to explore landscape subjects in non - traditional ways.
Most important are my direct observations of a specific place, the topography, the smell and noise, weather conditions, and when in the studio as the objects are made, the sensual memory of the place.  This method of working has inspired a series of works based on the rivers on the north shore of Lake Superior, the arid and tortured, yet beautiful, environment created by the Geo-thermal activity found in Yellowstone National Park’s Upper Geyser Basin, and most recently, the desert landscape of the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, where in 2008, I was Artist in Residence.

I have been a professional artist for 25 years, showing my work extensively in the Twin Cities area and at The Addington Gallery in Chicago Illinois. My work is included in many Corporate, Private, and Museum collections. In 2005, I received an Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board to travel extensively though out the western United States. 

I located to the Twin Cities after accepting a position in 1991 at the Walker Art Center as Director of Program Services. This position has offered me the opportunity to work with many internationally acclaimed artists, curators and the Walker Crew of exhibition technicians, organizing and overseeing installations in the Walker Art Center’s Galleries and Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.