Artist Statement
Frank Soenke Haseloff
Growing up on a Pennsylvania dairy farm, I learned that machines have souls. Farmers speak of their tractors with the same affection reserved for old friends—each one carrying stories written in scratches, dents, and the patina of honest work. This understanding shapes every painting I create: the recognition that mass-produced objects become deeply personal through the simple act of being lived with, worked with, and loved.
The Alchemy of Ownership
My work explores the transformation that occurs when something manufactured becomes something treasured. A factory-fresh automobile emerges identical to thousands of others, but through years of use, each develops its own character—unique wear patterns, specific scratches, the subtle sag where a favorite driver has sat for countless miles. These imperfections are not flaws; they are autobiographies written in metal and paint.
Car Portraits: Mechanical Personalities
In my Car Portrait Series, I approach vintage automobiles as I would human subjects—with respect for their individual character and history. By positioning each vehicle in a formal portrait orientation, looking directly into its "face," I invite viewers to see beyond mere machinery to the personality within. The 53 GMC truck with its battle scars tells a different story than the pristine Sunday-driver tucked away in someone's garage.
These aren't simply paintings of cars; they're portraits of relationships. Each chrome reflection holds fragments of the world around it—other vehicles, people, places—creating layered narratives that reward careful observation. I'm drawn to the cars that have lived full lives, whose surfaces carry the evidence of adventures, mishaps, and quiet moments of pride.
Secondhand Stories: The Poetry of Use
My Secondhand Stories series celebrates the humble objects that populate our daily rituals. Kitchen utensils worn smooth by countless meals, toy trucks that bear the fingerprints of childhood imagination, tools shaped by decades of honest labor—each carries the invisible imprint of human touch and time.
These pieces demand archaeological precision. Every nick in a hammer's handle, every paint chip on a child's toy truck, every rust stain on a well-used wrench becomes crucial to the narrative. The success of each painting depends on capturing not just the appearance of these marks, but their meaning—the visual vocabulary of memory, use, and love.
Technique as Devotion
My photorealistic approach serves this deeper purpose. Through painstaking layers and glazes, I don't simply reproduce surfaces—I honor them. Each reflection, each texture, each subtle gradation of light becomes an act of reverence for the object's journey from anonymity to beloved possession.
The Dutch Renaissance masters understood that details draw viewers into intimate conversation with a painting. I employ this same philosophy, embedding discoveries within chrome reflections and glass surfaces, rewarding those who take time to truly look. In a world of digital instant gratification, I offer the pleasure of slow discovery.
The Human Connection
Ultimately, my paintings are about us—about our capacity to form meaningful relationships with the objects that share our lives. They speak to the automotive enthusiast who sees personality in an engine's purr, the cook who knows exactly how their favorite knife feels in hand, the parent who remembers which toy truck was impossible to pry from small fingers.
In an era of planned obsolescence and disposable culture, I paint love letters to the things we keep, repair, and treasure. Each piece asks the viewer to reconsider their own relationships with the objects around them, to see the extraordinary narratives hidden in the ordinary things we touch every day.
Through meticulous realism, I transform the overlooked into the unforgettable, revealing that the most profound stories are often written not in words, but in the patient accumulation of scratches, dents, and wear—the physical evidence of lives fully lived.
Contact Information
www.soenkefineart.com
[email protected]
925-207-2882