Welcome
Hello. My name is Justin McGonigle. I am a painter. I've been an artist now for nearly twenty years. I enjoy art very much. I can't imagine a world without art. To me a world without art is a world void of any substance or character. Art is the fabric that is made from the experience of the human spirit. I am part of this production. I'm very proud of this. I invite you to look at my work in the Gallery section and share with me my creative output. The work that you will see spans nearly ten years and ranges from the abstract to the representational to the surrealistic.
Why I Create
Why do I create? I create so that I can understand. I create so that I can express myself. I need to create. I suppose without creation I would continue to misinterpret my world. I understand my world, my feelings from painting. Painting for me is a dialogue with myself. I need this dialogue. I need to see visually what I believe my feelings look like. Perhaps by doing this I'm better equipped to deal with my feelings. Feelings are complicated so by placing them somewhere, on the canvas for example, I can better organize or compute them.
I will continue to do this. I will continue to explore my feelings through the act of creating art. I suppose I will stop when I no longer feel that I have anything to share. Anything to say. Will this happen? I don't know. Until it does I will continue to produce pictures. I will continue to apply the wonderful vehicle that is paint. The wonderful, magical, expressive voice that is color. That is form. That is line. That is the human spirit. The human experience.
When I Create
I create when I have something to say. When I feel the inspiration. Inspiration is a curious force to me. Often when I have something to say I won't be inspired to paint. And often when I'm inspired to paint it's during a time in my life when not much has happened or transpired. But usually I paint when I'm inspired and I have a lot to say. It varies when this perfect situation arises. Sometimes I'll paint for many days in a row. And other times I'll paint quite sporadically. It's hard to say. But when I do paint I feel my best. I feel alive. I feel like me.
When I do create I feel that all my senses are at their greatest power. I suppose that's why I love being an artist. I love the feeling of being alive (with a capitol A) when I'm painting. I feel that I can see better. That I can think more clearly. That my sense of touch and smell couldn't be any more honed. I suppose that's why I paint. Why I create. When I do create all of these attributes come together in a rolling, white hot, wheel of creation. Flowing, burning, alive.
