It begins almost violently, like feeding an addiction. I have to paint right now. I have to use this color and I have to put it right there… I have to gouge this area with the scissors… I have to write these thoughts… I don’t know why. This is my way of getting raw emotion on the painting before stepping back and asking myself, “What the hell have I just done?”

Sometimes the feelings come in the form of a color, sometimes as a physical act of aggression to the painting and sometimes writing in a stream of consciousness. None of this is intended to make sense but provide a vehicle for the intention to flow and a space for the figure to live. It is the place where life exists without order before becoming a tangible thought or image. Our experience in our bodies is this entirely abstract barrage of stimulus that the mind later assimilates into belief structures, opinions and knowledge. Our physical bodies are these things walking around in the soup; a vague representation of what we are. This is what every human being has in common.

In a world where media and image guide so many perceptions locally and globally, the perceptions themselves form systems of thought even further removed from the reality of the individuals. My response is to build from an abstract source and blend thought, feeling and physical in a way that deepens the impact of the painted figure and our perceptions of who we are.

 

 

 

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