Chicken Print

I like to paint medium to larger scale images in Oil and Acrylic. My imagery tends toward multiple layers of figuration in dialogue with my constantly wandering mind and repetative thoughts on subjects I am curious or intrigued about. No answers, just questions. Point of view: With the mind we breathe life into the universe, our universe. Life is in our breath, and each breath is informed by the thousands of tendencies and conditions raised and informed from our experiences in one discrete moment to the next in an endless string we perceive as "I". To be alert to our mind's activity, to assert wisdom in the face of the ego's reactive tendencies; this is the exalted life well lived! Back story: Traveling across Canada in my preteens, then down the West coastal United States to Southern California, my youth was a whirlwind of cultural dreams from 1969 to 1980. From Ed Sullivan to The Beatles; Tom Jones to Led Zeppelin; Catholicism in Canada to Krishna in California; Flower Power to Quantum Mechanics; and a 1965 Ford Custom to men on the Moon! My teens and into my twenties were immersed in the cultural fringes and trends and into the questions and meanings of "I". In 1986, my only sibling, four and a half years my junior, Diane, died of Leukemia after two years of experimentation at Sloan Kettering and a radical bone transplant from me. I returned to University in search... Diane confessed to me in our last conversation that she had always idolized me, and that she had changed her major course of study in university because she realized she could never achieve in study what she saw I could do effortlessly in Art. So in her name, and with renewed conviction, I threw my entire life, body and mind into art. In 1988 I took vows as a Buddhist and found the science of training the mind to be in total concert with Art and with Quantum Theory. All my loves of logic, philosophy, humanity, together at last. Validation: The deeper my search in art, the more equanimity has filled my heart. The greater study in mathematics and teachings secular and sacred, the clearer the understanding of simple truths. The more travel and cultures I've experienced, the more compassion for others and the realization of the tremendous misinformation and fears that people cling to.