b'TheArnolfiniWeddingPortraitbyJanvanEyck,1390-1441IhaveenjThisbeautifulRenaissance soldiers.paintingbyJanvanEyckismyfavoriteworkofartandhasserved Idonotcastheinspirationforallofmy installationiroomboxes.IfindJanvanEycks pieceisfabriuseoflight,hisuseofobjectsas wallpaper,etsymbolsandhisuseofforced placementaperspectiveallcombinetomake prefertoemthispaintingveryspecialtome. andeachobjTheroomsahighlightibeinhabiteunknown,talongwitmoodthrArtists StatementI have enjoyed working alone with small objects since I was a child, hand-painting miniature soldiers. I do not copy existing rooms in miniatures; rather, my rooms are like a contemporary installation in small scale, somewhat as an architect might render a space-in-the-making. Each piece is fabricated, measured, drawn, invented like sculpture. Each accessoryfireplaces, wallpaper, et al.is purchased, but, as with Joseph Cornells boxes, their arrangement and placement are designed by me. Light is the transformative quality in these rooms; the mood I prefer to emulate refers best to the dream-state of twilight, when shadows emerge from the light, and each object takes on a different quality, which I consider akin to surrealism. The rooms are designed and highly edited, limiting visual information to essentials, thus highlighting each and implying the rest. Figures are implied by their absence; the rooms want to be inhabited by the viewer. The rooms are generally formally balanced, beyond which are the unknown, the hidden, the surreal. The sparse rooms imply more, which the viewer will bring, along with her/his own memories. The artistic intent is spiritual, rather than materialist; I create mood through space, composition, and light. Robert Off13'