Quiet, introspective images of side streets and empty windows dominate Russ Wilson's world.
"My earliest memories were experienced through the side windows of an old Pontiac, as our family made endless trips throughout the South and beyond. Travelling through town after town, I began to envision the life that went on behind those faded facades and beyond the rolling hills. My job becomes part artist, part director, as I script the narrative of an image."

Wilson's work has a timeless quality, a play of light and shadow that reflects the influences of some of his heroes, artists like Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth. Wilson states; "I am drawn to the feeling and light of the coastal south which helps to define my subject matter. I am a representational artist, but more than just representation, I want the viewer to see the abstract beauty of the forms and the subtle play of light on the surfaces."

In approaching a subject - a weathered beach house, a lone fisherman in the marsh, a mid-century drive-in or storefront - Wilson works to bring the viewer into his world of narrative and possibility. "I am usually drawn to a subject by a little play of light or form that catches my eye. I reconstruct it, adding and subtracting elements and actors until I have come up with a very subtle narrative. I find beauty in commonplace scenes with uncommon stories. I want the viewer to take away a bit more of the feeling of being there than just a well rendered scene. I have a quote from Robert Bresson taped to my easel: 'Make visible what, without you, might never have been seen.' That is my goal; the medium is almost incidental to the message."