Brad Maurer
I have several motivations for making art, but mostly I have ideas and I want to see what I can make of them.
Cartoons
Making people laugh is one of my life's pleasures, and that extends into my art. That's my motivation for drawing cartoons.
Drawings
I start many of my drawings with no preconceived idea of what the finished product will be. I start with a line or a pair of eyes and let that suggest what the next element will be. I continue that process until I decide it's finished.
Body Painting
I love working with a model and watching the transformation to the finished painting, and the dissonance between the person you know is there and the information your eyes give you.
I also love working with people who find the experience empowering and positive for their self-image. It's important to provide a comfortable and safe space for everyone to have the best experience possible.
Artist’s Statement
In the modern world, everyone, including children, is exposed to a variety of sexualized images and nudity, especially images of women. These images come through the internet, television, advertising, and sadly, through readily available internet pornography. These images are usually crass and exploitative. Given this proliferation of negative images, it’s important that we offer the general public a chance to be exposed to an alternative perspective of the human body.
As an artist, I have the opportunity (and perhaps the obligation…..) to show the human form in an artistic and respectful way, to show the beauty of the human form, to show that nudity doesn’t have to be sexual, and to show that everyone is beautiful.
I am trying through my body painting and photography to offer this alternative perspective. I hope you enjoy my work.
Brad Maurer studied art at Ohio State University and at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago is a resident artist at the Lancaster Art Vault in Lancaster Pa
