Bernstine’s interest in emergent structures, the appearance of patterns and complexity from a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions, guides the creation of his work. The artist begins his paintings and drawings with discrete motifs. As the works progress, aspects of the process will suggest variations, leading to new discoveries and allowing compositions to emerge organically and intuitively.
"I see my work as developing along parallel “lanes,” related to each other, each part of the larger whole. Working small allows me time to cover more ground. I feel like the sense of scale of each piece is in some ways independent of its physical size. To use a musical analogy, I feel like I work on songs, trios and quartets, not big band or orchestral. Simple procedures help keep intuition from getting stale by surprising me in the compositional process… I have the rudiments of a pattern-making procedure, but where it leads me requires constant decisions which affect the outcome….it feels like my stream of consciousness and its accompanying affect infuse the shapes or strokes. The work is not only the “esthetic-thing” but is in some way a personal story with personal symbols… Sometimes the introduction of words or a more or less recognizable object zeroes in on this aspect. The feeling I want in the end, at least subjectively, is that I have made something which is an arresting “thought-emotion thing.”
To see more images of my work please check the links to Instagram and Facebook.