#84 Within Painting

Painting: Oil on Canvas. “In my work I dwell in a sphere where all the stories have already been told. But if, in spite of this, a new story comes along, it will flow into that sphere like a river into the ocean.” My work deals with transcendence. In 1988 I experienced a powerful breakthrough in perception. During that time I was working in a postmodern vein on a small acrylic painting playfully titled "Understanding Understatement". It was one of about 40 titles of poems I was intending to paint, instead of write. With my vision attentively focused on my task, I suddenly discovered that in the process the painting had become something else. It had outgrown the title and my understanding of it, as well as what the image represented to me up to then. In an instant I was given a view into a sphere beyond my individual creation, a vivid realm I recognized as abstract intelligence. With that powerful shift of perception my methods of painterly investigation, based on an object of an issue, concept, feeling or any combination thereof, became obsolete. My insight transcended its previous boundaries and united with the field of conscious, living energy; the source of all stories, all of them registered in the visual code of omniscience. I felt a tremendous joy witnessing and participating in this illuminating process. Since then my paintings have focused on it and dwell in this object-free domain. My investigation continues, now with a full regard for the abstract dimension. A substructure of lines and shading, originating with that first painting carries forward in my present work. Coincidentally or not it also happens to be a continuation of the Modernist legacy, which I acquired unintentionally but now feel honored to cultivate. I paint with oil on canvas. Every painting has the hanging hardware included.