Here's Werner's Artist's Statement:
I am currently
working in oil paint on wood panel, sometimes incorporating pencil and
Prismacolor. At times I work from a
small quick sketch or painting, but at other times I lay down thin washes of
color, and the painting evolves from there. Seeking to find a balance between
the abstract and representational, I apply paint expressively while, at the
same time, rendering some of the images more realistically.
My work is also
influenced by southern California Native American stories and songs, especially
the creation stories and traditional “bird songs.” These stories and songs
often incorporate plant and animal life as the characters. They reflect a dreamlike, evolving world
telling how the world came to be and how the people came to be where they
are. My paintings reflect that
world: images appear to float, or their
scale is exaggerated.
Landscape, color,
light and imagery, abstract designs, stories and songs—all of these elements
merge together for me to evoke a sense of place.
