art
SERIES FOUND BELOW:
Abstract Landscapes, Alma, From the Dream, Scored Paintings, Dendritic Paintings.
Abstract Landscapes, Alma, From the Dream, Scored Paintings, Dendritic Paintings.
To see Works for sale
Van Vliet Gallery
INprnt (prints)
Fine Art America
Abstract Landscapes:
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Alma:
As a girl i was introduced to the Quaker concept of the light within. i imagined a lit candle burning within me and was greatly comforted by the thought. The light within, the lit candle, an illumination of the self from within the self. The quiet presence of divine energy, as the Quakers say it. A place of meditation, waiting and what arises there, out of the darkness, into the flickering light of consciousness. These new pieces have the feel of being uncovered by that light. and also, that they are stepping forward into that light, to be seen at last. They have a kind of ancient feel to them, portraits of women, women who have historically not had a voice, a record; i am making their record, each with her own expression, her own selfness. i use a technique i call scored painting. I score into a gessoed surface and then through a process of applying thin layers of paint and then lifting them from the surface. This fills in the scoring and creates an etching-type look. The thin layering of many colors gives the pieces their atmospheric feel lending to the introspective nature of the pieces. In another technique I score wet watercolor paper with a sharped tool dipped in walnut or Payne’s gray ink, which clings to the pulp making line, the contour of a face, an eye, a lip, the ink rides across wetted paper leaving mood and atmosphere, each face different. The woman’s face arises. I think of them as the soul within, Alma. |
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From the Dream
The way I practice this process is to stand in the opened door of the feeling my dream has brought and from that place listen carefully to what more wants to be expressed from that moment. The art becomes the container for me to be present in the feeling allowing me to feel what opens there for me. And the piece created carries that presence. Sometimes I use imagery that comes directly from the dream; sometimes, new images rise from the feeling place the dream has brought. |
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Scored Paintings:
These pieces I call scored paintings uses a technique I created to have the look and feel of an etching. The process incorporates aspects of painting and drawing. I score the surface of the painting and then apply and remove paint, over and over, as the paint fills in the scoring to create line and form. I work with several recurring patterns and images that resonate in me. Another aspect of the paintings is the dialogue between the horizontal and the vertical, a conversation between the world above and world below, the outer world and inner world. A collection of poems with this paintings can be found here: A Book of Remembrance, Shanti Arts |
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Dendritic Paintings:
A few years ago I had a dream in which my friend was teaching me how to move through walls. She said, “Like this,” and pressed her head against the wall. I thought, in the dream, That can’t work, but placed my head against the wall as she had. In that moment I felt the wall open and I moved through. I had the understanding that what can look solid also holds open space. In these new paintings I have been exploring open space and negative space; how structure can hold form and open form. From atoms to dragonfly wings, from riverbeds to trees to mountain ranges. I call these my dendritic paintings; form created which resembles branching like a tree, often in reference to nerve cells and the crystalline structures of rocks and minerals. I work with these questions: In setting these shapes down on the page, what emerges? How do these shapes relate to each other? How does color create tension or harmony within the piece? Recently I had a dream in which I held a pendant with one of my paintings on it under my tongue. It represented my devotion to God. In my dream I showed it to the male leader of a group of believers escaping from the enemy. From this he knew that I was one of them, and I was admitted to his protection. These paintings arise from my deep listening to that voice within me I call God. I work on both canvas and paper with acrylic paints, laying down thin layer after thin layer to create depth and conversation between colors. When I first started painting, I used Chinese ink, and “color” was the traditional five shades of ink: light wash to darkest black. After several years I yearned for more. This process of layering is teaching me the subtleties of color language. I continue to explore these components of color and shape and structure and how they can come together and merge in my paintings. |
Paintings: click here.
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