Having started my career by painting Rembrandt-like portraits of luminous white roses, I credit my discovery of fractals for transforming my artistic vision and changing the direction and force of my work. Always working with a single image of a flower, or a component thereof, I have stripped away the mask of the exterior form and magnified the interior thousands of times to depths beyond what is visible to the naked eye. My subject is no longer simply a flower; it is a dynamical system existing in a chaotic universe filled with energy, turbulence, mystery and beauty. Though the non-objective work may suggest a natural likeness – a wing, a wave, a shell, or even a human form – my vision invites a fresh dialogue between aesthetics and science.
Whether creating evocative representational images or boldly deceptive non-objective work, my focus is always on the choreography of the movement, the organization of the space, the subtlety in the tonal transitions, and the intricacy of the brushwork. My technique is rooted in the labor-intensive practices of the Dutch master painters. I apply upwards of 20 layered transparencies to create richly saturated dark and vibrant luminous highlights that dance off the surface of the canvas. I constantly contrast warm hues against cool hues to play with the reflective light, and to seduce the viewer into the myriad of complexities.
 
I do not subscribe to rules. Though I have a general vision at the onset of a new
painting, I have had so many serendipitous discoveries during the painting process that have often taken the finished work somewhere that I never foresaw initially. Every painting is a fresh beginning and a new journey; and I cherish the unpredictability. Just as my senses are challenged with every new painting, I want to stimulate the viewer’s imagination and emotions.
 
Though my representational work is often referenced alongside Georgia O‘Keeffe, the similarity starts and ends with the fact that we are both identified with painting flowers. My more conceptual series probe the bridge between beauty and science, order and chaos. And with my newest series – Unveiled Duality – inspired by the unlikely pairing of artists Robert Mapplethorpe and Pablo Picasso, I am searching for a balance of harmony and tension amongst the highly contrasting elements of the accuracy of photo-realism and the abstract, geometric forms of cubism. As New York art journalist Joyce
Korotkin wrote:

“Bigeleisen brings a unique vision to the genre of floral painting to embody a contemporary world.”