Statement
Artist Statement
The Dance of Art. Over three decades ago, I began my journey into expressionist painting after many years of training as a realist painter. At first this transition felt completely foreign as I’d always had a visual “reality-meter” for evaluating my work.
In search of my artistic voice, I turned to dance, where I’d always found creativity and joy.
One of my secret passions is to dance along wet sandy beaches, carving brush strokes with my toes, leaving masterpieces for the waves to sweep away. In bringing this passion to my work, painting celebrates an exciting visual dance that captures each moment of creation.
My Painting Process. Filled with dynamic brushwork, calligraphic linear strokes and layers of texture with subtle transitions of color, my paintings are created with a variety of brushes and tools I’ve collected over decades of creating art.
Typically I paint horizontally—on the floor. This allows me to “go large” while using gravity and my own physicality with dance-like movements to direct each painting session.
Mystical instrumental music or the vocal chanting of Sanskrit lyrics often inspires my process and helps me to stay keenly focused in the moment as I paint.
Each painting becomes a visual performance celebrating the moment and capturing the tension between structure and spontaneity as well as composition and immediacy.
Beginning with a concert of broad strokes infused with dynamic motion, this allows me to give an overall direction to each “painting-dance.” Once this basic composition is placed, consecutive layers of swashes, swipes and strokes either add or eliminate layers of colors and shapes to or from the painting. This builds textural dimensions of visual vibrancy. Final details finish each painting in the form of “controlled” dribbles, splatters, scrapping and calligraphic brush detail.
Painting on clear Plexiglas panels or frosted vellum films allows me to explore shadows and build a depth of layering with more immediacy. The unique technique I use to install my multi-paneled Plexiglas paintings—which hides installation hardware—gives these works the appearance of floating in space.
Painting Philosophy. My paintings reflect my life. I’m constantly seeking the beauty and balance available when I live in the moment.
My paintings do this by capturing the moment in visual form. Hidden layers are exposed and then retreat. Color juxtapositions stimulate excitement, mystery and contrast.
The ongoing challenge is knowing when to stop. The goal is to completely stop all mental editing and become one with the collective flow found within the greater Spirit of Creativity. This requires constant mind monitoring as mental chatter always attempts to interrupt this flow.
The true joy and thrill comes when I return to my studio after a painting session to discover unconscious visual relationships I’d had no intent to paint.
The practice of surrendering to the moment through painting increases my ongoing practice of living life in the moment. For indeed the moment is where I find access to the most power, peace and beauty possible.