Walter Brown is a physician (pathologist) turned artist, creating installations with conventional and unconventional media. At its core, his work is an attempt to obtain security and achieve individuality in an unsafe crowded world, to distinguish fact from fantasy, and to deal with current environmental/political realities.  He likes to find beauty in unexpected places,  but also enjoys the seamier side of the human condition.

 

His compulsion is to put varying amounts and combinations of acrylic paint inside small plastic bags of the type often seen in the produce section of the supermarket. Each bag is uniquely manipulated into whatever shape, color design, or texture is needed.  Depending on the amount and variety of colors added, method of dispersal of the paint within the bag, and other  factors, tangible and intangible, the result is never the same, and often worthy of notice.

 

A single bag can be an individual artwork, or groups of bags can be combined to make a composite large image. Colors combine in unexpected ways. Textures are variable and surprises are common.  Sometimes bubbles form;  other times, the paint flows in small rivulets along the crevices of the plastic. Wire mesh and aluminum are ancillary materials, which when used in conjunction with the plastic bags, allow additional creative avenues.

 

The individual plastic bags are best viewed with backlit light, and are therefore placed between plexiglass and mounted onto light boxes to be displayed.

 

When used to create artworks, the unexpected resurrection of the plastic bags achieves a kind of justice.   Instead of trash marring the landscape, the bags become worth looking at, completing a transformational circle.