The peak of Mount Abstraction is surrounded by a skirt of mist. Free from the
representational qualities of Art and existing as pure Idea, the summit of Mount
Abstraction floats like an island in the sky. It is the place where supreme simplicity has
not yet divided.
When a drop of paint touches the surface, that is when I start a painting and I
begin the descent of Mount Abstraction. The experience is similar to the ancient Greek
technique of divination called molybdomancy in which molten lead is dropped into
water and the resulting shape is then interpreted. With paint however, the process is
much less immediate. Initially, the paint will lap at the misty shores of the pure idea.
Sometimes, the mist will gather in a slow vignette while at other locations, the purity
rips into the mist as if fired from a gun. Cataracts and maelstroms begin to contort and
blossom as the painting evolves. The strange collides with the familiar and creates
cognitive dissonance. This is all because of a drop of paint.
I have approached Mount Abstraction from the photorealistic foothills and, just
as often, I have initiated my exploration from the summit and worked my way down
the infinite paths that lead through the mist and begin to congeal. My life’s work seems
to exist on the edge, or the brink of the mist where spontaneous and calculated marks
combine. It is a place where pleasure and insight begin to fuse. It is an intoxicating
dynamic that continues to re-define the upper limits of my imagination. I have become
addicted to the uncomfortable and unpredictable twists-and-turns of liquid thought
that is painting. I like to think with paint, not about painting. My paintings are a place
where a nascent aesthetic, born from the 70’s culture of comic books, breathes the same
air as 17th century Dutch signifiers gleaned from a liberal arts education.
Flickering on the edge of my coordination and conscious craft, my paintings are
swiped from the periphery. Not to be confused with “happy accidents,” grabbing
images from the periphery requires discrete perception and awareness. I swirl the
alchemical data in a cauldron before me and cull the images that appear significant. In
1958 Klaus Conrad coined the term “apophenia” and defined it as the “unmotivated
seeing of connections” accompanied by a “specific experience of an abnormal
meaningfulness”. When I generate such a sensation for myself, I know the painting is
done. On the slopes of Mount Abstraction, I hope my paintings become cairns for
others.
representational qualities of Art and existing as pure Idea, the summit of Mount
Abstraction floats like an island in the sky. It is the place where supreme simplicity has
not yet divided.
When a drop of paint touches the surface, that is when I start a painting and I
begin the descent of Mount Abstraction. The experience is similar to the ancient Greek
technique of divination called molybdomancy in which molten lead is dropped into
water and the resulting shape is then interpreted. With paint however, the process is
much less immediate. Initially, the paint will lap at the misty shores of the pure idea.
Sometimes, the mist will gather in a slow vignette while at other locations, the purity
rips into the mist as if fired from a gun. Cataracts and maelstroms begin to contort and
blossom as the painting evolves. The strange collides with the familiar and creates
cognitive dissonance. This is all because of a drop of paint.
I have approached Mount Abstraction from the photorealistic foothills and, just
as often, I have initiated my exploration from the summit and worked my way down
the infinite paths that lead through the mist and begin to congeal. My life’s work seems
to exist on the edge, or the brink of the mist where spontaneous and calculated marks
combine. It is a place where pleasure and insight begin to fuse. It is an intoxicating
dynamic that continues to re-define the upper limits of my imagination. I have become
addicted to the uncomfortable and unpredictable twists-and-turns of liquid thought
that is painting. I like to think with paint, not about painting. My paintings are a place
where a nascent aesthetic, born from the 70’s culture of comic books, breathes the same
air as 17th century Dutch signifiers gleaned from a liberal arts education.
Flickering on the edge of my coordination and conscious craft, my paintings are
swiped from the periphery. Not to be confused with “happy accidents,” grabbing
images from the periphery requires discrete perception and awareness. I swirl the
alchemical data in a cauldron before me and cull the images that appear significant. In
1958 Klaus Conrad coined the term “apophenia” and defined it as the “unmotivated
seeing of connections” accompanied by a “specific experience of an abnormal
meaningfulness”. When I generate such a sensation for myself, I know the painting is
done. On the slopes of Mount Abstraction, I hope my paintings become cairns for
others.