Artist Statement
My paintings are inspired by memories, dreams, subtle feelings difficult to describe with words, my interior landscapes and inner worlds. I seek to give color to the ineffable, to describe that which is formless, to dive into the obscure and uncharted, in search of the one realm with which all things are connected.
Color is my initial source of inspiration. Some colors love to be together. Their relationship is palpably a happy one. I ask the painting: ‘what more do you want? What will make you feel more delighted?’ Sometimes I catch a glimpse of color, or a shape will enter my mind’s eye. We communicate that way, the painting and I, in the most subtle way on the level of intuition and inner imagery. It is just the quietest whisper and I need to tune in. I play with color and shape on a canvas the way a chef plays with colorful vegetables and spices. When something works well, it feels yummy. I taste it visually. When shapes compete for attention, or when colors aren’t happy together, there’s tension, you can sense it. I let the painting lead me and show me where it wants to go. When things unfold in a fluid way, it feels like I did not ‘make a painting,’ the painting created itself. I used to say that my paintings already exist in other realms and that they want to be seen in this world. I have to be receptive and quiet enough to let them come through me.
I practice painting as a kind of meditation in action. I let the process of mark making take me on a journey into the unknown. The marks teach me patience, teach me self-forgiveness, they are a constant reminder of how to abdicate control. As artists, perhaps as humans, we are plagued by fear of making mistakes. I let the painting process stand as proof that it is exactly these ‘mistakes,’ that when layered and allowed to remain, allowed to exist, create unexpected beauty and resolution itself.
So many works of art created by the lineage of great masters throughout the history of art move me deeply- move me to tears.
One evening I asked this question:
How is it that great works of art, music, poetry, film, and writing have the power to affect us humans so profoundly, stir us deeply to the core?
The answer I received was this:
Great art is Love made visible.
Great music is Love made audible.
Great writing is Love experienced and made understood.
Great creative works elevate us. They extend to each of us a personal invitation to participate in the Cosmic Love Affair.
If this is true, it is the improbable task of the Artist to enter into realms unknown, to catch a glimpse of impersonal Cosmic Love and make it visible for the rest of us. The art object itself, the poem, literary work, film, or musical composition, is nothing more than a snapshot taken by a tourist of uncharted territory, a postcard sent to humanity documenting stops along the way; from the depths of the dark underworld, to the heights of luminous heavens- on their quest toward the numinous and sublime.