Russell Serrianne
Russell Serrianne lives in Glens Falls, NY where he has maintained his studio at the Shirt Factory since 2006. Raised in Niagara Falls, Russell attended the New School of Art in Toronto, Ontario with a concentration in drawing and screen process printing. He then studied printmaking at the Center for Music Drama and Art in Lake Placid, and lithography at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh.
Solo exhibitions include the Salem Art Works in Salem, NY and Castleton College, Castleton, Vermont. Invitational and juried exhibitions include the Lake George Arts Project, Albany Center Gallery, Artists of the Mohawk- Hudson Region 2016, The Laffer Gallery, the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center, and the Lake Placid Center for the Arts.
Artist Statement
I am captivated by the energized line naturally found in the strength and determination of the vine tendril. I use the vine tendril as my drawing tool, as my mark, as three dimensional line. My process centers around the selection of individual tendrils, each having a complex simplicity… which once interwoven create a fluid shape, a composition. I seek to create movement, fluidity, and variations in density stemming from the thickness of each tendril and its placement within the whole.
I alter the appearance of the tendril’s thin bark with burnishing techniques and coatings of clear shellac – ‘freezing’ the tendril’s line before the organic process of decay would return it to part of the forest floor. In making these works I am interested in creating a visual interplay between something that’s natural and something that’s taken totally out of context and looks nothing like what it really is.