George Guarino

George Guarino
Albany, New York, USA

STATEMENT

Daily, I photograph abstracted images of the world around me. My collection of photographs are the basis of the pictures I create digitally. Many images I manipulate using various photo-apps, preparing them to be collaged together using MS Publisher. I approach each piece as if it were a mind, a being, a person. Each piece has an undefined personality that the viewer is encouraged to use as a focus point to a trance experience. Being a Clinical Hypnotist, I’ve developed a process I call Pictrance, picture-trance, with which I use my pictures to guide viewers beyond the picture into a space of personal transformation. I will then return them to the world and hypnotically set the picture as an anchor, stimulating the subconscious mind to propel the viewer toward their desired outcome. The pictures are generally abstractions with few figurative areas so that the viewer is free to set the meaning of the piece with limited preconceived notions of what the picture was before it became what I’m presenting. As the artist-creator the problem I’m always attempting to address is how much information to give the viewer and how much to suggest. I want my viewer to take part in letting go of what has been holding them back from creating the world they have permission to create for themselves. Each picture is an act of hypnosis; absorbing the viewer’s attention, helping them to go beyond figuring it out, and suggesting that simply by their act of viewing it, participating, they will be on their way to bettering themselves. It works well.

BIO

George Guarino attended the State University of New York at New Paltz and graduated from the State University of New York at Albany in 1981 with a fine art degree. Upon graduation, he worked in the music industry publishing Buzz Magazine and producing Real George’s Backroom TV for the Albany market. In 2005, he switched careers becoming a Clinical Hypnotist working with clients for behavior modification. In 2011, while taking an advanced hypnosis training in California, he was introduced to a visual model of the mind that resonated with him. The model divided a rectangular space into three areas; conscious, unconscious and subconscious. Upon seeing this, he was immediately struck with the simplicity and variability that this framework provided him for visual art creation. Since then he spent the next 3 years, 2011 – 2013, producing artworks using the triptych approach that inspired him using paint, pastels, wood, and collage to create wall hangings that he exhibited in area businesses and invitational art exhibitions locally. In 2014, he gave himself permission to expand beyond the triptych format focusing on representations of the subconscious mind; the center. He was draw to digital collage, photo manipulation and assemblage which is how he approaches his current art making. He regularly exhibits pictures in regional art shows; Albany Center Gallery, Troy Art Center Fence Show, Hudson Valley Photo Regional, as well as one-person exhibitions at various local establishments.

ARTIST CONTACT

(518) 256-6549
[click to email]
www.DeepTranceArt.com

IMAGES