Damon Freed

American
Lives and works in Missouri

Damon Freed investigates the relationship between soft and hard edges in his paintings, and believes that there is an ordered way of seeing when looking at shapes. Taoists referred to this way of thinking as perception of the nature of things. Soft and weak overcome hard and strong. Those who concentrate on the hard edges are attracted to strength. Those who concentrate on the soft centers are attracted to weakness. To perceive the soft, one must overcome the hard. This is why the hard edge functions as an obstacle and the soft brushwork a void.

There are three major Asian influences upon Damon Freed's work. The first is classical landscape painting from China, Japan and Korea. The second and third influences are Chinese Taoist and Zen philosophy. Both Asian landscape painting and philosophy picture man within nature, not separate from it. Daily living seems to position man in conflict with his environment, but in reality, he is always in absolute harmony with the necessary push and pull of the process of nature. Damon Freed visualizes this feeling of balance in his painting through abstract means. Shape is the formal strategy by which this meaning is expressed. Brushwork and color bend with the shapes. A few words from the early seventeenth century Chinese landscape painter T'ang Chih-ch'i help to describe the feeling, Brushwork pertains to the refined, untrammeled style and spirit, which should be harmonious, pure, and agreeable.

Damon received his M.F.A from Hunter College, New York, and a B.F.A from the School of Visual Arts, New York. In 2002, he received the Juan Gonzales award.

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