Artist Statement

Cletus Wilcox

I am a Louisville native now residing in New Albany, Indiana and have been a full time artist for the last 8 years.  As a self taught artist my processes are generally rooted in a sense of discovery and problem solving rather than a polished, pre planned execution.  Although the aesthetics of my work are widely varied they are nearly all rooted in the interplay between form and emptiness, a central teaching in the Zen tradition.  As I continue to explore my own artistic voice I have become keenly aware that creating a body of work that simultaneously exhibits a clear form while also negating that form is what interests me.  In short my aim is to use artistic expression as a means of actualizing the reality of our own lives and the reality of the world in which we exist.  The reality that forms are inherently empty and that emptiness is experienced through form.