Derrick Breidenthal, Untitled, oil on panel, 12" x 19"

American, b. 1971, playing from Kansas City, MO, USA

Derrick Breidenthal has been developing and producing fine art for over twenty five years. His work has been showcased throughout the US. His art is heavily influenced by rural America. The combination of severe space, light and color in Derrick’s work reveal much more than the precise site itself. Vibrant and enthusiastic to traumatized and bare; these are the landscapes that emerge in his work.

“In my studio I create within my own visual vocabulary. My measure of success and failure, personal intent, rules, goals and so on. I am pushing my criteria regarding aesthetic, material, and emotion. My enthusiasm for all three propels me to finish work and begin another. For the viewer I hope the work extends past an agreeable composition and links them to a place within their own identity or history - to their sense of a moment. When I am able to connect in this way there is a chance for greater correspondence then just the image.”

Some permanent collections include The Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell, IA, H&R Block, Kansas City, MO, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, MMG Worldwide, Kansas City, MO, W Hotel Collection, Detroit, MI, and Viceroy Snowmass, Aspen, CO as well as numourous private collections. His studio is based in the Crossroads Arts District in Kansas City, Missouri.

Contact info: www.breidenthalart.com

Thoughts on the Telephone process

Translation in a project like Telephone inserts one more artistic translation before and between myself and a given subject. I enjoyed the experience of this. I have yet to see any form of artistic collaboration end poorly. There is everything to gain and little to loose.

The most difficult aspect for me was making the decision to either reflect my interpretation/message within the context of my body of work, or to choose an entirely different visual execution that may better serve the next artist in line.

In the end, my take on the art I received seemed served well by keeping the translation in the form of landscape. More specifically a painting of an environmental condition. I may have subconsciously returned to this format because it tends to be how I translate life.

For me a format like Telephone raises a good question of artistic range within ones work. Can I say what I want to say within the genre or subject matter I pursue as an artist? As well as the idea that everything is really just interpretations of interpretations. We all progress in a circular motion, not a linear.