Toro (String Theory series) Painting

Ted Twine has a very unique background and life experience, a fact that comes through in his art. An American born in Japan of mixed parentage—his father was African American and his mother Japanese—he grew up on military bases until middle school, living in Los Angeles and eventually attending UCLA, before spending several years in Asia that included six months on a spiritual journey in India. During that period, he spent time with enlightened yogis and personally witnessed “miracles.” He was permanently affected by those encounters. His own spiritual growth over the years since has been the basis of his art, which attempts to draw viewers into sensing the nature of an expanded awareness. After his first stay in Japan and India, Twine completed his Bachelor of Arts degree at UC Santa Barbara, then moved to San Francisco, where he began his serious art practice and day job as a teacher in the mid 70s. He returned to India and Japan early next decade, and had three solo exhibitions in Tokyo. Twine's art is about the interplay of consciousness, perception and imagination. It gives no easy reading, yet offers opportunities for interpretation by viewers. It strives to actively balance color and visual force using shapes and marks, line, pattern, contrast and negative space. His compositions tease the associative tendencies of viewers, while remaining obscure enough to encourage a stillness of vision in order to see the image as a whole. Ted and his wife live in a large loft in Los Angeles. He worked as a designer at a university, then in 2003, had an accident that required emergency brain surgery and six months of recovery. A few years later he left his job at USC for good, and became a full-time artist again. Twine's art is in a number of private collections as well as in the holdings of such corporate entities as Bank of America, hp, Bain and Co., and high-end hotel and resort properties internationally, including Apria Hotel, Mandalay Bay and others. The artwork on this site includes some pieces from his studio inventory, including paintings and prints, as well as some current or recent work. He hopes to attract like-minded people who also have the means and desire to live with art that can both enliven and still the mind.