Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Artist Statement
My Work focuses on the connection between creative process and spiritual inquiry.
I paint with my hands. I like the direct, intimate contact of my fingers in the paint, on the canvas. My painting practice is about transformation: turning an organic substance into atmosphere and light, the visible growing beyond itself, extending into the realm of the invisible, paradoxically becoming clear.
For me, painting is both a somatic and an intuitive process. I'm moving without a map, yet my impulse is toward stillness. An image develops, lingers, recedes in a meditative space as I work with it. I am concentrating on the activity of doing rather than on what is done.
Some works focus on differing qualities of painted light: the light 'just now'; the light that reflects, tricks, draws one towards it; absent light, the pull of the dark. I use light to find my way through architectural space that is both invented and found.
Other works explore Taoist, Buddhist and Hindu spiritual traditions of being open to receiving the unexpected, acceptance of the way things are, and the inter-relatedness of destruction and creation. I am inspired by Buddhist Thangka painting, which serves as a record of and guide for contemplative experience; Taras, which are gateways to states of mind; and Taoist Tings- cauldrons used to obtain nourishment for spiritual use.
Like painting, the Ting itself is affected by the mutability of conditions as transient contents move through it.
"The function of objects is to restore silence." Samuel Beckett
I paint with my hands. I like the direct, intimate contact of my fingers in the paint, on the canvas. My painting practice is about transformation: turning an organic substance into atmosphere and light, the visible growing beyond itself, extending into the realm of the invisible, paradoxically becoming clear.
For me, painting is both a somatic and an intuitive process. I'm moving without a map, yet my impulse is toward stillness. An image develops, lingers, recedes in a meditative space as I work with it. I am concentrating on the activity of doing rather than on what is done.
Some works focus on differing qualities of painted light: the light 'just now'; the light that reflects, tricks, draws one towards it; absent light, the pull of the dark. I use light to find my way through architectural space that is both invented and found.
Other works explore Taoist, Buddhist and Hindu spiritual traditions of being open to receiving the unexpected, acceptance of the way things are, and the inter-relatedness of destruction and creation. I am inspired by Buddhist Thangka painting, which serves as a record of and guide for contemplative experience; Taras, which are gateways to states of mind; and Taoist Tings- cauldrons used to obtain nourishment for spiritual use.
Like painting, the Ting itself is affected by the mutability of conditions as transient contents move through it.
"The function of objects is to restore silence." Samuel Beckett
Current Show: New Paintings
November 3rd-8th
Opening Reception: Saturday, Nov 3rd, 6-9pm
BAG Gallery
168 7th Street
Brooklyn, NY
Brooklynartistsgym.com
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Recent Show: BAG + One, September 2007
BAG Artists in Residence curated a work by a fellow artist to show beside their own work. I chose North Carolina artist Bonnie Melton who works in oil, tempera and clay. The work below was shown with my painting Upturn.
Bonnie Melton, Ghost of Sex With Canoe, 2007
Bonnie Melton, Ghost of Sex With Canoe, 2007
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Friday, July 20, 2007
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