ARTIST STATEMENTThe work you see here dates from 1981 through 2008. There are several distinct styles and these different painting solutions are the result of differing approaches to and goals for the paintings. The paintings “Here” and “Indian” were painted in 1981. I was then concerned with process and making art that was grounded and stable – the act of making these images was joining together similar parts in a very strong image that has a great deal of presence that felt like a kind of making as in building a wooden table. They were a way of me centering myself and projecting a powerful grounded beingness into the future. The next set of paintings from 1983 through 1989 has multiple intellectual roots as well as complex artistic roots. Ultimately these works are about a personal sense of cosmic consciousness. Artistically, analytic cubism, Matisse's profound color, and Pollock's paintings of poured skeins of paint, are the heritage with which I found myself in constant dialogue with. Intellectually, I was reading a lot of layman's books on relativity theory, quantum physics, cosmology, science fiction, psychology and Easter philosophy that really ignited my imagination. The period between 1989 and 1997 was experimental. I consciously started painting from a very intuitive space and did mostly works on paper. In 1991 I began to meditate in a regular practice and the images very quickly began to come from the meditation practice. The paintings from 1997 through 2002 are a direct result of the previous works on paper and were the real beginning of a spiritual content. From 2002 to 2004 there was a simplification of image and a letting go of the use of fabric in the center of the painting. The painting “Spirit” was a real breakthrough in allowing so much emptiness. The image for the stillpoint series came while mediating but spoke to me with such force that it has become the vehicle for paintings since 2004. As my meditation practice has become more powerful, the paintings become emptier and more spacious. These paintings create a spiritual space of attentive centered openness and stillness that hopefully has a peaceful and lyric joy. ABOUT THE ARTIST1947 Born January 7, Brooklyn, New York 1963-67 Hunter College, B. F. A. 1967 William Graff Scholarship for graduate study 1967-69 Hunter Graduate School, M. A. Program VIEW ADDITIONAL WORK |
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