“I try to execute the smallest movement correctly. I try to get it right but more likely get it wrong. I start over, start again, but never finish. I drop my arm, pick it up, and drop it again. I am crude, clumsy, and awkward.

I could be describing the physical effort to rehab my left arm, a limb I cannot raise due to neurological problems in my neck. The rest of my body is encumbered by the impact of this limb, more than the loss of my leg, a loss independent of my neurological limitations. But the two limbs together, at times, create a daily adventure of just getting by. The goal to raise this arm again remains elusive. Exercise is frequently interrupted when healthy, compensating muscles or joints give out. But I persist.

I could be describing how I create. With paint, brush and ink, or wire when I work from a model, I am at my clumsiest. These materials can be so damned physical in their execution, demanding in their discipline, and unsure in their result. So I turn to my imagination to break down my creative process, to break down how I see the body, and to simplify the elements of my visual expression.

My paintings, drawings, and sculpture are consistent in their format and intention. Often processional in imagery, they are an exploration of limb and torso in conflict or disorder, telling a story of repeated execution. Their journey is halting. In horizontal panels or wire sequences, contents appear cramped. clumped, compressed, or incomplete, coming in an assortment of parts, separated, broken, stuck in gesture, struggling to find a relationship,searching for a proper space, Ultimately, they are articles of interrupted experience.”

**************************************

Mr. Vilinsky is a recipient of the prestigious Fifth Year Traveling Fellowship Award from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Prior to his education at the SMFA, he earned a BA in English from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He also studied film direction, writing, and analysis at the Orson Welles Film School in Cambridge. His work, in numerous private collections, extends to a variey of media: paint, printmaking, mixed media, sculpture in wood and wire, video, and performance/installation art.