Bradley Lafford
About! That’s hard to put into words.
When an encounter makes me feel compelled to move closer, to linger in its presence, to breathe it in, to investigate, to feel the skin go tight on the back of my arms, and yet I do not fully understand why, that is a little of what I’m about.
There is no explanation, no narrative, no certainty. Something in its presence simply demands attention. I I linger, my senses awaken, I am drawn towards it before I understand it.
My relationship with material, form and compelling backstory begins in much the same way.
Working primarily with found materials, I am instinctively drawn to texture, surface and material.
Texture is everything.
Texture is a record of history, memory, emotion; where the physical and emotional meet. Through sculpture and painting, I use making to explore highs and lows of life, collisions, pairings, emotion and experience. I am also biologically drawn to marks of necessity, the unintentional man made traces left through use, repair, adaptation and survival. They are not interesting simply because they are marks, but because they are honest evidence of human existence. My work invites viewers to pause, explore, touch and connect before they seek to understand.
And then, before I know it, it happens again.
Another attraction.
Another surface.
Another mark.
More question.
Why do certain shapes, vistas, textures and surfaces affect us long before we understand them?
Before one investigation has ended, another has already begun.
Bradley Lafford