An interview with painter Jered Sprecher whose exhibition Half Moon Maker is on view at Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston through May 10, 2014.

Sprecher comments: "When I am working on a painting, I am pushing it toward being a concrete object, yet I want it to maintain poetic possibilities. As I look at a painting, even a line within that painting is evocative of an emotion or thought. This line resembles something in the physical world. It is at peace being a line, yet wants to be more than that. We are animals built to search for meaning in objects, to create images, to speak words, to contemplate, to affect change. As an artist working with painting, I find it holds infinite possibilities. That is what keeps me 'dreaming,' searching, and grasping for things that are in plain sight, and yet just beyond reach. It is interesting that you mention metaphysics. I think of the surface of a painting as a chalkboard at which we hash out meaning, problems, pose questions, rephrase those questions, and even bang our heads against the board. This requires thinking and feeling empathy for what is present in that work of art and by extension the world around us."