Statements

 

GEOMETRIC ABSTRACTION

“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.”

                                                                                                                                        -Nikola Tesla

These drawings are neither purely abstract, nor strictly representational, but hover somewhere between the two. They share an interest in spatial illusion, intricacy, geometry, patterning, cross-hatching and implied movement. They are playfully quirky, at times mildly psychedelic. They are imaginative visual speculations on the mysteries of the universe. Each represents a unified world with its own internal logic that abides by a few natural laws we recognize, like the existence of light, perspective, gravity, 2-D and 3-D space. 

I am both fascinated and confounded by Albert Einstein’s claim that time — as we perceive it — is an illusion. Astrophysicists say that space-time is tied together in a so-called continuum; we exist in a 3D world, but there are mysteries in the universe like black holes, and theories of quantum physics where physical law on the atomic level follow entirely different rules from the physical laws that applies to the larger objects of our visible reality. It is said that we exist in a mathematical construct. Using a visual vocabulary that contains geometry, movement, space, color, rhythm, patterning, and dance seems like a reasonable strategy for approximating — or more modestly — attempting to conceive the inconceivable.

 

THE MANDALA SERIES

Sumptuous, intricate, ornamented, these oil paintings are richly referential — they call to mind a range of associations from mandalas, the cosmos, cells, lace, brocade and more. I feel aligned with the long history of geometric and floral ornamentation the Far Eastern, Middle Eastern, and European craftsmen have long employed. They did so with the implicit understanding that pattern and repetition, which are endemic in nature, are primal in their rhythmic connection to the human nervous system. I identify my work with the long tradition of visual artists interested in notions of cosmology. I am, as my friend the artist Thomas Lyon Mills says, painting worlds within worlds with the aim of revealing profound, contemplative, slow truths.