Spotlight On: Jeremy Durling, Artist and Studio School Instructor

When did you know that you were an artist?

During a visit to the Metropolitan while I was in community college. The depth and intensity of that experience, standing in front of these masterworks and beginning to see the paint dancing, and feeling that it was all some incredible mystery. One can understand exactly how it's made from a technical standpoint and yet have no idea how it's able to pull at your very soul. It's like music in that way. I could somehow feel that this was going to be a driving force in my life.

What is your artistic philosophy?

It is important to me that the creative process is a way of understanding and experiencing the world. A search for the poetry there that can often be overlooked.

What is your process before approaching the canvas?

I do a great deal of sketching and color study before I tend to approach a subject through a final painting. I need to first consider the visual architecture of something that I feel drawn to paint.

What have you learned about your students and yourself while teaching at CCAE?

The greatest surprise for me is just how reciprocal teaching is to my creative process. Teaching requires me to clarify my thoughts in my own work, and refine these ideas when depending on how well they are received. This in turn improves my own creative process. This has all been an incredible gift. I feel it was when I began to teach that I truly learned to paint.

Website: jeremydurling.com