Don Hartmann is a pop expressionist who surveys and subverts artistic narratives through his exploitative mise-en-scène paintings. based in Worcester, MAssachusetts, he has been exhibiting his large scale paintings since 2001.

In the past I have used Polaroids as a point of reference for a template.

I have now switched to making collages out of my own photos (be it digital/film.) The work I now create is larger scale wise and thematically. I like to enlarge the scale for more visual impact and to further investigate process to the end result (i.e. paint, impasto, and textural qualities vs. the overall rendering or correctness of the subject.)

My style is accidental. I had no intentions of being a painter…just a lucky experiment. I use everything I can get my hand on. I have come to know the things you are not supposed to do…mixing combinations, application, etc., but it has been a part of the process; lessons from failure. Texture and image are the biggies. It is about how the paint is applied but also has to be an image; a situation captured.

As always, the juxtaposition of narrative. I sometimes paint a real situation and sometimes an invented situation. Looking for purity in an alley.

I look at photography constantly. I kind of stink as the grandiose artist. I’m dumpster diving…bits here and there. Fame, excess, longing, hope, fear…, the human experience that could stop any second or go on for 20 years. You know, I people watch, basically.

A glimpse inside the studio…