Thought Dreams Print

This title is from a Bob Dylan lyric - "If my thought dreams could be seen, they'd probably put my head into a guillotine". The song is "Its alright Ma" from "Bringing it All Back Home". I suppose the indirect association is that we contain much which is unexpressed/inexpressable and this painting is a glimpse at what occasionally comes to the surface. Abstraction is like visual jazz. You just listen to Miles Davis and enjoy it. Likewise you just look, and enjoy. But in a moral, political way, beyond just the sensual and decorative, paintings are communicating to you - albeit non verbally. Are you there? Are you alive? Wake up! Don't be fooled. These are oil crayon drawings with acrylic borders, mixed with pumice powder for texture, on wood panels. I sometimes cut messages and words into the pumice-textured acrylic border before it dries. Sometimes there is a clear connection with the image. Sometimes it is random and almost meaningless. It could be music lyrics but it is usually a concept I was thinking about as I worked. Japanese paintings often have the convention of writing religious aphorisms in calligraphy. Kind of the same idea. The power of the living word displayed visually. I tend to hide and distort them and sometimes ugly them up in order to remember our impermanence. But words are at the same time powerful. Jesus was the word made flesh. Multi color borders or rectangular shapes reference Japanese scrolls and Tibetan thankas and mandalas, among other things. As I understand, the solid block at the bottom of a scroll is a meditation focal point. The scroll borders frame the central visual image - like a computer frames its screen, or a black edge of a film negative contains the image. I think the borders look cool and introduce a graphic design or color field element. They vibrate, while keeping the eye moving, and hold everything together. I suppose living in Japan for 17 years I have been influenced by Japanese rock gardens, Japanese manga, Japanese scroll paintings including mokuhanga (woodblock prints) and large scale calligraphy on scrolls. The power of the living word displayed visually is a central idea of Buddhism and Japanese calligraphy.

Print:Giclee on Fine Art Paper

Size:8 W x 10 H x 0.1 D in

Size with Frame:13.25 W x 15.25 H x 1.2 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.