"I usually do not start a painting by trying to create anything exact. It is not in my nature. I am much more comfortable trying to express the essence of a person, place or thing, taking into account all the colorful surrounding details. I try to create paintings that have meaning for me and for others. For me, the experiences that have the most meaning are simple and sometimes fleeting - so one has to capture the essence of a moment quickly without over-thinking. It sometimes seems impossible to recreate anything essentially real - to do so would be an arduous task. I don't think I could ever paint a rose as lovely as a real rose, but I might try to incorporate the deep layers of color and shapes that make a rose a rose, or pair it with an African textile. I am not one for imitating, although many great artists have learned through imitation. It is far more exciting to free my soul, to see and appreciate the little things in life and to paint the essence of what I see. I am simply seizing the moment to visually capture the Santa Fe that I love, along with many other charming places. I find myself using the same response as Matisse, when he said to a woman who was looking over his shoulder and saying that the lady he was painting did not look like a lady, 'Madame I am not making a lady, I am creating a painting!'"

-Sandy Vallencourt

"I think it is a bit overreaching for anyone to assume he or she can determine what is 'real' and 'essentially real' - not to mention the 'essence of things.' In my current art practice, a statement like this from Brancusi isn't even on my radar. My art became powerful and real to me when it returned to being simple. Drawing has become surprisingly simple - even effortless at times. I don't have the voices of Brancusi or other artists and theorists in my head when I'm working. I simply put charcoal to paper and take comfort in the fact that I am creating images that feel worthy and necessary to me. It has been liberating to untie my work from the hold of other people's theories. I'll let my life and my art lead me to what feels essentially real."

-Wesley Berg