ARTIST STATEMENT

“There is nothing ugly in art except that which is without character, that is to say, that which offers no outer or inner truth."

Auguste Rodin

I make images that explore what it means to be human, our need for connection, the weight of silence, and the traces life leaves behind.

What does it mean to connect in a world that keeps pulling us apart? That question guides my work and my search for connection with the natural world and with each other. 

For me, images aren’t decoration. They are a way of engaging with the world and with each other. The tension between what we show and what we keep inside runs through the images. Making images lets me work in the space where presence and absence meet, and give shape to what often goes unspoken.

Form is part of that search. How a figure sits in the frame, how light gathers or recedes, how contrast guides the eye these choices shape how emotion moves through an image and how it settles in the viewer.

I work within a world full of noise, but I look for what endures the small traces that reveal who we are and what we long for. Through balance and interruption, through light and shadow, I’m drawn to the space between solitude and togetherness.

Renato Rampolla