Face Painting

Born Far Rockaway,N.Y. Lives in Rhinebeck,NY Artist's Statement In the over twenty years that I have been painting, though my work has evolved and undergone several transformations, its direction and intent has remained constant. Investigations within the processes and techniques of painting, paralleling an attempt to understand that which seems beyond our ability to understand, have led me to compelling core meanings. This is what I call a kind of "spiritual alchemy," a manipulation of material and substance within the contextualization of form and space, the elemental in concert with the conceptual. The ambiguity of the images and forms arrived at through these processes is a function of the countervailing nature of conscious and subconscious activities. The subject becomes an interplay between a psychological "gestalt" and Philosophical and poetic striving for truth, affect, and meaning. . My work is hard to characterize either stylistically or thematically as it relies, to the greater extent, upon subconscious generation of imagery. One of my major concerns is the issue of how paint, existing as both a material, and illusory image transcends to the ephemeral realm of idea, thought, and feeling. I feel that this is the essence of what it is that painting (in all it's various manifestations) does to the human mind and imagination, and how it affects us psychologically and spiritually. Over the years I have tried to strip away the layers of intent and depiction to try to find more in the process of the work that might lead to a subject and imagery that would be richer and truer to a deeper understanding of the world and the mind/soul hiatus.