Percival Everett

Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, USA

Artist statement

I have made my living as a novelist for some forty years now, but before that I made paintings. And I continue to make paintings. As a writer, the constituent parts of my art are representational, necessarily, and in painting I find an escape from that. To say that the two media inform each other would be an understatement. I would not be able to do one if not for the other. My paintings have changed, as all artists' works change over time, but what has remained is my desire to create the concrete in the abstract. I use the term abstract reluctantly, but the word nonrepresentational is not accurate and I don't like defining anything by negation or by reference to what it is not. I have little to say about my paintings, as I usually have little to say about my books. If I have to explain the work, then I have more work to do.

Artwork