Artist Statement

"I saw them-my father, all of those people working to send 12 men to walk on the moon.

Man's quest to touch the moon is LUNAR THIRST"

The process by which Blaise assembles Lunar Thirst echoes the careful planning that made the lunar landing possible. But more importantly we are reminded that beyond the technical achievement man's journey into space marks an alignment of often disparate human motivations, represented here by Blaise in art-historical terms: Abstract Expressionism, Action Painting and Pop Art. The exploration of space refers not only to the stars but to the artist's ordering of his canvas.

By masking sections of the canvas, Blaise is able to construct sharply delineated geometric shapes-regions of formal clarity which initiate the ordering of formless space in the manner of Abstract Expressionism.

Borrowing from a painting by Abstract Expressionist, Gerhard Richter, Blaise utilizes a triangle in the upper right hand corner of the canvas to puncture the tentative equilibrium established by other geometric forms.

As in Action Painting, space conspicuously exceeds the confines of the canvas. It also acquires in the middle region of the painting a texture which supports the illusion of random movement and evokes the possibility of a world composed of spontaneity and chance. Determines to subdue the accidental and volatile character of Action Painting, Blaise again uses masking tape to provide a definitive contour to the region of splatters and painterly brush strokes that form the immediate background of the work's central images: Neil Armstrong's lunar footprint and the desolate landscape of the moon.

Employing the strategy of Pop Art, Blaise duplicates common place images to commemorate a singularly uncommon event. The meaning of the moon landing becomes indeterminate. The journey into space is a glance at the nearest newspaper stand.

The indeterminacy characteristic of Pop Art is heightened in Post Modernism, there is a greater multiplicity of meaning. Blaise's work incorporating the styles of distinct artistic movements, recalls man's desire, in all it's diversity, to progress to a higher mode of consciousness.

Artists seek new stylistic territory and astronauts travel beyond the boundaries of the earth.

The End