Artist Statement
I explain my current art by slightly misquoting three great artists:
Pablo Picasso: “It takes many years of art-making to paint like a child.”
Henri Matisse: “If you are confused, go back, look at your earliest works. There you will find your core interest.”
Philip Guston (spoken to me, his student, while viewing one of my earliest paintings): “Wow! You really like creating abstract forms and figures! For you, this is your abundant source!”
When I was younger, I did not listen to any of those important Artists. Young and naive, I walked my own path. I sourced from the art works I admired. As models, I used masterful paintings to aid me problem solve my own art. That mode of misconduct is long over. I accept the wisdom of Picasso, Matisse, and Guston. Today I paint like a child. My work is self-investigatory. Art History in not the problem. I am the problem.
Working for years has made me accept that which is possible. That which is possible is indicative of myself. As Matisse advised, I did look back at my earliest works. I found personal, self-truth in Philip Guston’s astute observation. Abstracting visual truth from visual reality is fun and self-informative. I choose three-dimensional abstraction as my means. My Art may be called "Referential Representation,” or “Abstract Representation.”
My Art represents my intellectual and emotional reality. My Art is created to investigate, become true my here and my now. The journey is never ending; absolute truth is never realized. Truth finding is research; it is idea testing; it is an endless journey, step by step, more steps forward than backward. Reality is an abundance, filled with abstractions, full of perspective possibilities. To make sense, I construct my worldview through an active exercise of my imagination. My work is meditative, philosophical. I actively resist standardized intelligence. Imagination is not equivalent to consciousness, nor is reality equivalent to the world as it exists outside our minds. Reality is an activity; it is not dry, not philosophically pure, not static. Reality is passionate engagement in search of order and meaning.
My reality is an abstraction; it is where I have been, it is my search for revelation. My paintings and drawings are made during unique moments. The title of each painting refers to my state of mind at the moment each began; my paintings retain those titles, despite things may have changed during their process. The title of each drawing is the date of its creation. In other words, tracking the titles of my works tracks me; my art is a collection of moments, a personal diary. Like a diary, my artworks are a catalogue of my endeavors, a record of my incessant movement toward clearer understanding of existence. My fondest hope is I connect with you, my viewer, though my art work. We are here together. We are connected, intertwined with one another in this world, children of the events within it.
Pablo Picasso: “It takes many years of art-making to paint like a child.”
Henri Matisse: “If you are confused, go back, look at your earliest works. There you will find your core interest.”
Philip Guston (spoken to me, his student, while viewing one of my earliest paintings): “Wow! You really like creating abstract forms and figures! For you, this is your abundant source!”
When I was younger, I did not listen to any of those important Artists. Young and naive, I walked my own path. I sourced from the art works I admired. As models, I used masterful paintings to aid me problem solve my own art. That mode of misconduct is long over. I accept the wisdom of Picasso, Matisse, and Guston. Today I paint like a child. My work is self-investigatory. Art History in not the problem. I am the problem.
Working for years has made me accept that which is possible. That which is possible is indicative of myself. As Matisse advised, I did look back at my earliest works. I found personal, self-truth in Philip Guston’s astute observation. Abstracting visual truth from visual reality is fun and self-informative. I choose three-dimensional abstraction as my means. My Art may be called "Referential Representation,” or “Abstract Representation.”
My Art represents my intellectual and emotional reality. My Art is created to investigate, become true my here and my now. The journey is never ending; absolute truth is never realized. Truth finding is research; it is idea testing; it is an endless journey, step by step, more steps forward than backward. Reality is an abundance, filled with abstractions, full of perspective possibilities. To make sense, I construct my worldview through an active exercise of my imagination. My work is meditative, philosophical. I actively resist standardized intelligence. Imagination is not equivalent to consciousness, nor is reality equivalent to the world as it exists outside our minds. Reality is an activity; it is not dry, not philosophically pure, not static. Reality is passionate engagement in search of order and meaning.
My reality is an abstraction; it is where I have been, it is my search for revelation. My paintings and drawings are made during unique moments. The title of each painting refers to my state of mind at the moment each began; my paintings retain those titles, despite things may have changed during their process. The title of each drawing is the date of its creation. In other words, tracking the titles of my works tracks me; my art is a collection of moments, a personal diary. Like a diary, my artworks are a catalogue of my endeavors, a record of my incessant movement toward clearer understanding of existence. My fondest hope is I connect with you, my viewer, though my art work. We are here together. We are connected, intertwined with one another in this world, children of the events within it.