Artist Statement | Shilo Ratner
Off the Trail, Into the Studio
I grew up on the New England coast, lived for years in the fog-soaked hills of Northern California, and now paint from my studio in Connecticut. When I'm not in the studio, I'm outside: snowboarding in winter, on the trail or the water the rest of the year. I don't just look at these places. I move through them. I notice how terrain tightens into ridges and then breaks wide open, how light slides across snow and water, and how, underneath it all, a quiet structure holds everything together.
That's what I bring back to the studio.
I paint in acrylic on canvas, building each composition one geometric shape at a time. Each shape informs the next: where it goes, how large it should be, what color it needs. It's a lot like riding. You read what's in front of you and respond. Some decisions are precise and deliberate. Others surprise me. In some pieces I outline forms in spray paint, giving them a bold edge that holds its own against the color around it. My collages follow the same logic on paper: hand-painted paper and canvas, cut and layered on archival Rives BFK, so the edges and textures reward a closer look.
Every painting starts with a real place, but you won't find a picture of it. You'll find what it felt like to be there, rebuilt from the shapes underneath.
Because color responds to light, the work keeps changing, one thing in morning sun and another in evening lamplight. That's why I make paintings for the second look, and the third, the one you take months later when the light hits differently. In a world that scrolls past everything, I want work that holds your attention and gives something back.
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