Where I am Now
“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up you loins like a man, I will question you, and you declare to me. Where were you when I laid the foundation on the earth? Tell me if you have understanding.”
Acrylic on Canvas, 36”x 42” 2011
From 2008 to 2019 my painting shifted from exploring application of intuitive painting 1 to my theological studies focusing on the Wisdom Literature. Since my identity has always been to seek to understand the why, what, and how of my life I felt highly motivated to connect my intuitive painting process with my passion for biblical studies to facilitate a richer engagement with my art and my ideas.
My fundamental process over the past 20 years centered on a kind of “free association” or “automatic” expression led by engaging in what I call “The Spirit of Art”. After my one man show in 2008 I felt the need to move my intuitive expressionism into new areas of exploration. I set out to go in two directions. To begin, I was going to work to have more control on the final image and use my experience to create a painting that would speak to more people than only me.
Secondly, I decided to do a series of paintings where I would not allow recognizable content to surface in my images. My goal was to see where the Spirit of Art would lead me if I controlled the images such that the original state or ground of being could be explored. These paintings reflected the both the chaos and the serenity of the beginning and end of any creative effort. Paul Tillich’s Depth Dimension – if you will.
My first path resulted in several paintings that were more content rich and the imaginative final product has the sense of a dream scape yet not highly individualized. “Peace on Earth” resulted.
Acrylic on Canvas 36”x 42” 2011
“And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened: - Behold! humans beings living in an underground den, which has a mouth open toward the light and reaching along the den...”
This painting was an important transitional and I will discuss it in more detail after this discussion. The content is very rich and has spoken with many viewers. Path two led to the creation of a body of work I continue to explore in my serenity/chaos series and the ground of the Spiritual Depth Dimension.
So, some of my current work reflects my exploration of the Spiritual emerging from the Natural. The emerging of Spiritual reality from Nature’s reality allows me to connect to patterns in the wisdom literature as well as to relate the rich history of theological thinking on the Cosmos and morality 2.
Acrylic on Canvas 42” X 62” 2015
