Filthy’s paintings from real life are currently on display in the Gateway Gallery of The Motion.

 

Here is the Artist’s Statement:

I’ve been making art from my imagination for as long as I can remember. I create symbols, textures, imagery, text and composition that merge into something cohesive enough to tell a story. It’s also important for me to embrace and celebrate the qualities of whichever medium I’m using.

Filthy’s paintings from real life are currently on display in the Gateway Gallery of The Motion.

 

Here is the Artist’s Statement:

I’ve been making art from my imagination for as long as I can remember. I create symbols, textures, imagery, text and composition that merge into something cohesive enough to tell a story. It’s also important for me to embrace and celebrate the qualities of whichever medium I’m using.

My spontaneous approach to the surface comes from my heart, instinct, and disregard for making "mistakes." I believe that the paints can tell their own stories if you let them speak and not control them too much. Controlled amnesia is a term I like to describe how I most often go about making art. I need to have just enough spontaneous reaction to my marks and gestures, almost as if I forgot what I did 5 seconds ago. 

I often use glossy and flat black lines to fragment and organize my compositions. Highlights and reflections will change to reveal more imagery as one’s body moves around the paintings. I find much inspiration from the people, places and cultures I discover in online virtual worlds. When I’m not logged into a computer or in my studio making art, I enjoy discovering inspiration in nature by hiking with my dog… especially in the snow.

 

I’m influenced by artists like Kandinski, Dove, Bacon, Klein and Matisse. In most of my current work, I’m expressing that we live in troubled and fragmented times. This fact contrasts and magnifies the good times, which I believe society must forever cling to.  Even in my more colorful "up beat" pieces, I try to use strange perspectives, textures, and text to promote darker interpretations. When I’m creating a piece specifically inspired from virtual online worlds and people, I implement images and symbols of "the grid" which is commonly referred to as the network of computers that combine to make up continuous flow of information for an online world to exist. I also commonly use graffiti in these pieces to commemorate specific virtual locations, events, and avatar names. Even within the virtual world drawings, I incorporate real life imagery that may speak about or symbolize current events around me. Similarly, I apply current virtual world happenings into real life inspired artworks. I’m forever trying to learn more about art, painting, drawing, and myself.  I live in Tyngsboro Massachusetts with my wife Anya and dog Monkey.

 

Jeffrey Lipsky (aka Filthy Fluno)  was born and raised in the Boston area of the US.  He graduated from Montserrat College of Art in 1999 with a BFA in Fine Arts and concentration in  Education. Lipsky’s most recent body of work focuses on pastel drawings and paintings about people, places, and events from the virtual reality community of Second Life.  He makes the RL originals and limited editions reproductions availabe at his gallery on Artropolis, the island he owns and manages, and at select galleries across the metaverse.

 

Lipsky also recently opened the RL CounterpART Gallery in Lowell, MA in the US. The gallery is dedicated to mixed reality exhibitions of contemporary art, new media and live events. When you buy Filthy Fluno’s counterpART, you also get a real life 8.5 x 11 inch paper edition sent to your RL mailbox.  Just IM Filthy Fluno inworld or send your address to filthyfluno@gmail.com.