New Works!

THE PROCESS
I undertake a mental process that may last weeks and months, which probably qualifies the process itself as an art form. There are many times during the thinking stage when I engage in mental twisting and turning to seek out the definitive forms. For inspiration, I travel to the country to drink in the lay of the landscape or the shapes of humans, and their plethora of colors. Later in the planning stage, a mental switch clicks on, then off, then on and off again repeating itself with fleeting parts of images until I can put the pieces of images down on paper or canvas to see what emerges.

The drawing and painting process lasts as long as the switch is on, stopping when the images switch off. Sometimes the images flicker on and off like a blinking light. Sometimes I wait and look at what is there on the canvas until another piece of the images switches on. It frustrates me that the images do not come in clearly and stay still so that I can look inside my own mind to see a still picture. I often must rely on discovery, piece by piece. Occasionally I use photographs of certain parts of the land or human pose to hold the moment using parts to augment other images.

Sometimes, if I am lucky and the images come fast, the idea paints itself, and I am focused, I believe the artist often does not control the art, but that the art controls the artist. The artist fights for control/ Resistance strains the forms, the colors, and the meaning. To make art is to relinquish control to the force that drives it. I struggle to unlearn the past, to let go of inhibitions, and to let the art speak independently.

THE PRODUCT
The work becomes final when I stop receiving the images or when I think not one more color, stroke, or addition would make it any better. I seek to have strength show in the work and know I have gone too far when the image becomes heavy and burdened. The subject of the art may have importance to the work's meaning; but without the magnificent how (way) it is executed, there is no complete language. The work must communicate with the viewer and seeks a response.