"i's" Painting

Born 1944, St.Louis, Missouri. I currently live in the coastal mountains of Northern CA where I have my home. studio and workshop. THE WORK... In the early sixties, I discovered the book “The Eternal Present” by S. Gideon an anthropologist who traveled the world studying the images and artifacts of early cave dwellers. In his studies one common image was found….the human hand. These hand images were created by tracing around the hand and filling in or creating a stencil by placing the hand on a surface and blowing paint over it. Whatever these hand drawings represented, evoked a deep vibration and connection in me. The metaphysical nature of these primordial mystical images started a journey that goes to the core of the work. They represent a rite of passage from what I deeply loved as a child and couldn’t explain to what I still love as an adult and still can’t explain. Abstraction is the visual language I have chosen to record this journey. Abstraction is a source of deeper meaning. It is a source of knowledge and truth. Knowledge and truth have a dual nature of being both concepts fabricated by the mind and words that act as signposts to an understanding that goes beyond the limitations of the mind. The intellect is deceptive and alluring. It creates scenarios and conditions that give the illusion that reality can be found in some place other than this present moment. My curiosity is drawn to the space between thoughts and concepts. I seek within the process of image-making abstract knowledge about reality that cannot be expressed through words and concepts. I remain humbled by the mystery and abstract nature of the creation and view the image-making effort as some attempt to give face to it. . All of the work I view as an abstraction of some sort. There are pictures that are more or less representational and others that are not. In the cubist form used in my early crystal explorations, I tried to evoke a sense of light emanating from within. Dancing and drumming are recurring themes for me. They evoke the same response as when I reflect on those primitive hand images. Recently I’ve explored words as images. Many of the pictures are inspired by the dualities that exist in nature. I am curious about many things and do not put any restrictions on that curiousity. Some images I need to massage for awhile, but generally I do not like to stay any longer than necessary without closing the door on anything.