There is no sequential linear progression to the painting process. It leaps and retreats. Although retracing a path is not an option, it is the security of thinking in familiar spaces that allows the process to strengthen and ripen. When the once unfamiliar becomes too comfortable, like a spinning wheel forming a rut, than growth stagnates. Trust, do not fear, and growth is inevitable.

Growth: combining these moments of trust with the knowledge that what is being communicated is indeed relevant no matter how personal, introspective or instinctual.

Someplace in there, in the process between the palette and the painting is the gnawing notion of honesty. As brushstroke builds on brushstroke and color butts up against color the image emerges. That is why the surface is never really smooth. It shows those moments when the brush stumbles and trips and tries again, also those when it dances and flows. Here the honesty of the action becomes form; intent is communicated.

And it is the honesty that is the most important thing.

Bodhisattva

Carving out the picture plane, creating space,

creating allegories.

My tools - paint brush and fishing pole.

Gone fishin’ one sun filled day I found a small, deep hole in a cool brook far back in the woods.

I would visit this place with regularity and each time the trout let me know that he ruled this space. Mostly I just sat on the rocks, until the pure light shifts into dusk, watching as he plays in the swift current that squeezed through. Further down stream two industrious beaver are busy with their engineering project. Does the trout know that soon his home is going to be flooded. After a while I stop trying to catch the suckers and give the big guy the plumpest of the swuirmy wormmys harvested earlier that day.

Gritty warm earth, cool crystal water, bright light,

soft rustle, damp air heavy with pollen and spores -

grasping images, I paint.

from top:

the Huntress    23” x 96”

Twerp               37” x 28”

Black Face        25” X 30”

Bodhisattva        68” X 42”

nel mondo ma no sai        48” X 72”

Shadow Catcher     48” x 72”

5 Smokers

    David                    13” x 10”

    Morning smoke     11” x 7”

    Smoker                 11” x 8”

    Smoke screen       8.5” x 7”

    Biting tip                8.5” x 7”

Wrapped Head        14” X 12”

50 sets of eyes        39” x 35”

DOORS - portrait of Temple Grandin

         73” x 52” 

      acrylic on gauze on canvas with tape, paper, and glow-in-the-dark