Brent Houzenga Studio, New Orleans, LA (2026)

02/26/2023

Deductive Reasons
Works On Glass - By Brent Houzenga
Steve Martin Fine Art - 624 Julia St, New Orleans, LA 70130
Opening Saturday March 4 From 6 to 10 PM
❤️❤️❤️

12/01/2022

For the most part I paint portraits, meaning there is a person depicted from the chest up. I make and use stencils to create these portraits. But I’ve always felt like there is no difference between the background and the subject. The stencil and the portrait become part of the process.

There’s this thing that I like to think about. At the microscopic level, way “down” there, everything you see, everything that we are, is made up of energy. There is no difference between you and your mind, or that tree over there, or that car, or that bus, or that city. The building blocks of everything you know come from the same place. Transversely, on the universal scale, everything is stardust.

So in my paintings I’ve always tried to make my subjects part of the “background”, part of the painting. I noticed early on, the universe in my work. A splatter of paint might look like a constellation. A scribble might look like some sort of cosmic beam. And so most of my work, although there is a subject involved, is abstract painting. The subject is always an element, another tool, another move that I make. I like to see the painting going through the subject, woven into the fabric of the piece. The subjects also morph as they become part of the process. They might not look like themselves when the painting is finished.

The body and mind, our experience, is an abstract thing. It is a temporary experience to help us understand the nature of our reality. There is no other. There is no separation. We are part of the whole. We are part of each other. We are not as defined as we would like to think.

Ovals & Abstracts opening as part of First Saturday art walk this Saturday Dec. 3 from 6-9 at Steve Martin Fine Art