Lifeblood Painting

I create work that seeks to encapsulate the experience of the numinous, from calm meditative visions to harrowing moments of cosmic expansion of consciousness. In trying to capture the essence of experience the work can take on narrative properties or render itself in entirely abstract terms. So, in a sense, the person looking at the work is the subject and the observer in one. My work is about capturing that moment when the individual sees convention and creed as the arbitrary set of assumptions they are, the rise and fall of empires as the unimportant and vain frothing and bubbling of ephemera they are. It is about the joy of letting ludic sociopolitical distractions go, even as compassion compels the idividual in all thoughts and action. I work in pencil, ink, painting as well as digital media, including still images, video, music and sound art. At the base of all visual work is mark making, and much of the digital work has as a basis scanned pencil drawings. Where I find my imagery is from direct experience in my daily practice. By not using imagery and iconography from extant traditions presents a challenge. To use imagery that is very personal and make it communicate in a way that is universal is one goal taht will never bocome easy. Therein lies the joy of creation. It's interesting to observe how the reactions of people who see the art at an exhibition react to it versus how people's relationship to pieces develop over time when they have them in their homes. One person ended up giving a piece back because she found it reaching out to her and moving when she was alone with it. They do keep developing long after I'm done with them. My role is in the creation and when other people interact with the work is when it is complete, so until that point the art is only partially manifest. When starting a new piece I can't say that I know what will result, nor what I'll be when I emerge from the other side of the process of its creation. We are all in the process of experiencing aspects of this process of the universe coming into being. We'll be living in a new reality, (or rather, we'll have reality tunnels exploded), by the end of this. My main stylistic inspirations are from the decadent artists of late 19th century Vienna, the surrealists and photographers, from Imogen Cunningham to the Starns twins, to Joel-Peter Witkin. Where that leaves me is anyone's guess.