Selected Paintings 1991-2005
by Camilla & Richard Shaffer
January 3 - March 25, 2006

“Arrobamientos” is an installation process by two painters that involves the presentation of paintings, their objects, and various sources against the backdrop of the entire space of the Santa Cruz County Bank. The exhibition seeks to tell a “story”… a story about both painters’ affection, and even love, of images, the act of painting, and also of each other over the last fifteen years of studio work from Paris, France to Santa Cruz, California!

Like any story, this installation process seeks to use written language, assorted objects, and various “sources” for the images of the paintings, shared with the viewer to expand their visual experience of them. While it is really impossible to say “why” a painter makes a picture, this installation attempts to assist in telling “how” the pictures were made. Always working directly from nature, the painters observed the objects, their spaces, colors, and forms over real time. Therefore, the paintings exhibited here are presented together with their related objects and their original visual materials as an explanation of the “ideas” behind the painting process.

The title of this exhibition “Arrobamientos” is a 16th century mystical term from Spanish poetry, and its meaning is “rapture, bliss, and ecstasy.” In this sense, the artists here are expressing their own dedication and “rapture” toward their work, their interest in visual ideas, and the installation of these various forms. Both artists hope that the viewing public is engaged and enthralled by the complexity of images presented. We are deeply appreciative and thankful to Christine, the curator, and to John Rossell, President and CEO of the Santa Cruz County Bank, for the chance to transform and transcend the landscape of the building. We are thankful, appreciative, and, yes, even ecstatic for this opportunity to tell our true “story!”

Con affetto,

Richard and Camilla Shaffer