Artist's Statement
Abstraction itself has been my subject matter for nearly three decades. Not an easily understood common expression of painting, the observers must be able to comprehend and struggle for meaning of the half said and the implied and what is never the completely described. For many observers this is a literal impossibility thereby creating the painter's frustration of whether to paint down to the level of the observer. Searching for my own artist's voice and the struggle of self discovery in a unique style of painting, my objective has been to transmit my expression for the observer to experience my same feelings. Until recently all of my prior paintings were true abstractions -- emotionally serene contemplation's, nonobjective, nonrepresentational works in a style unique to myself that is not easily described with words. My paintings are as intuitive visual poetry of the cosmos for the eyes to delight in; they are a rare artistic alchemy of aesthetics and emotional communication for the soul to enchant, to surprise, to contemplate and to revisit. There has always been a constant evolution within my work. Prior to my current style, coined as Batik after the Indonesian textile wax dyeing technique, my previous work was considered Lyrical abstraction from the French school, post World War II. My struggle has been to develop my own unique style, one which has been similarly observed but never a duplication of another artist's search for truth and substance in my own art. In my new Batik technique my goal for the first time is not to overwhelm the natural and organic forms of nature so that they are not totally lost in the abstraction and more easily digested by observers less use to self definition. My art is from both life forms and my subconscious ethereal imagery . . . like Déjà vu with the intent of communicating meaning over function and the complexities of mind and spirit. We are reminded of the old Latin maxim: Caveat erro, let the wanderer beware. Once you enter into this conversation you will discover truth, and a world that you have not before known. Jacques Maritain, that insistent French philosopher, says that beauty is that in which the mind discovers itself. In my art, you discover yourselves, and no higher accolade can be given any artist. This art has a beginning, a middle but no end. Every time the viewer returns to the art work, the conversation continues, with new meanings, new depths, new answers. That is the enduring nature of my work.
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