Preston
Trombly
Media:
Mixed Media, Painting
Studio Location:
Diego Salazar Art Studios - 43-32 22nd St., Long Island City, NY 11101
Room/Studio#
106-B
Website:
Artist Bio:
Trombly’s artworks have been exhibited in museums, universities and galleries throughout the greater New York Metropolitan and Tri-State areas, Chicago, Portland OR, Fort Collins, Knoxville and France. His works are also in private and corporate collections across the country. Trombly’s art has received awards including those from The National Arts Club in New York City, the Cooperstown Art Association and The Art Students League of NY, where he studied for a number of years.
He is represented in New York City by The Prince Street Gallery.
He has had solo exhibitions at The Prince Street Gallery in NYC, The Jorgensen Gallery at the University of Connecticut, Gallery 903 Portland, Oregon, Westfield State University, Krasdale Foods Corporate Headquarters, The Jasper Rand Museum, Fairleigh Dickenson University and Faust-Harrison, NYC.
He is a frequent speaker and lecturer on the arts and expanding individual creativity.
Prior to creating works in the visual arts, Preston worked as a musician—composer, performer, and conductor.
He holds a Master of Musical Arts degree from the Yale University School of Music. He was a Fellow in Composition and Conducting at the Tanglewood-Berkshire Music Center, a Guggenheim Fellow and a several resident fellowships at the MacDowell Colony, along with receiving commission grants from The NEA and the NY State Council on the Arts among others. He earned his Bachelor of Music with Honors from the University of Connecticut. His original music has been performed extensively in America and Europe and commercially recorded on the Nonsuch and CRI record labels.
Classical music devotees know Preston as the long-time host of Sirius/XM Satellite Radio's nationally broadcast "Symphony Hall" channel 78.
Artist Statement:
The need to make art has been a driving force in my life. Whether it’s working with and organizing sounds over time as a composer and performer or more recently organizing colors, materials and shapes in space; my work is about turning initially vague, fleeting and amorphous ideas into solid, concrete and comprehensible works of art.
Art making for me is a journey of self discovery of feelings and emotions that arise from a pre-verbal place deep within. My works tell ‘stories’ that cannot be told with words. These non-verbal feelings and emotions are then perceived uniquely by each viewer. No two people will have the same connection to a given piece.
My collages, drawings and paintings express power and action with bold rhythmic marks and use of texture. The physicality of these works is intensified by pulsating brush strokes, drips, rubs, calligraphic elements and strong color washes. I gravitate toward the use of dark tonal effects that contrast with brighter more saturated areas.
More recently I've been combining the mass and volume of painting (using various mark making tools) with the fluidity of drawing. Together these elements capture the fleeting temporal moments of the energy of life and the art-making experience itself.
As I begin, I work intuitively and don’t have a preconceived notion of any “message” or “story” I’m trying to tell. Rather, I’m responding to the materials and marks I put down for their own sake. The painting tells ME what IT needs.
Artist, teacher and mentor Bruce Dorfman once said, "Don't worry about expressing yourself. You can't help it.” So any strong or powerful visual response a viewer may have to a particular piece comes from this quiet place.
How do I start a new work? Each piece begins when a particular juxtaposition of elements intrigues me enough to start working on a piece.
How do I know when a particular work is 'done'? At the point when the addition of even one other element will 'destroy' the work, and the subtraction of even one single element will leave it incomplete, the piece is finished.”
