My name is Hillel, and I am an artist who lives and works in New Jersey.

I make work using a mix of acrylic paint and found objects. I use everything, from trash, to jewelry, to mushrooms and other natural materials to make art. My work is then coated with many thin layers of paint and transparent mediums, emphasizing how paint flows around and over the objects that become fossilized by the paint.

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I work in three different styles of my own creation, each a testament to my pursuit of unique artistic languages: Fractalism, Associationism, and my most recent exploration, Simulationism.

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Unlike traditional Fractal art, that begins as an equation on a computer, Fractalism starts with materials that are nonsymmetrical but fractal by nature, like mushrooms, flowing paint, and organic materials. The core of this style is to trust in the fractal nature of materials and human perception to find and reveal something. Through prolonged observation, I "catch" and then "bring out" images embedded within what initially appears random. Much like rhyming structures inspire creative choices in poetry, this process actively forces creativity to emerge.

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Associationism began when I started to incorporate words into my art. The goal in this style is to start with a subject and use free association to come up with images and text that redefine that subject or add meaning to the piece. It began when I was looking through a sketchbook of mine and realised that a sketchbook contains something that is not often seen in final art: the chain of ideas. As you page through, you can trace how one led to the other. The goal of this work is to illustrate how ideas emerge from making associations and then scrutinizing each association for interconnections.

 

The most recent style I’ve created, I call Simulationism. 

This style began as I was recovering from an operation and asked myself what would happen if I tried to paint the pain. What resulted was a recognition that when I create something about what I am experiencing, as I am experiencing it, every brush stroke and hand movement records that state of mind. I call this style simulationism because human perception is a simulation. It is our very own simulation, and to create effective work in this style,  the basic requirement is to enter as deep as you can, into your own simulation of thought and experience.

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This work goes beyond expressionism in that it puts emphasis on communicating the specifics of your experience in ways others will recognize.  

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These are three expressions. I do have other styles and am driven to uncover even more. I believe that the true purpose of art is to explore and reveal the myriad ways in which the human experience can be expressed, and in doing so, to create a bridge of understanding and empathy with the viewer.