Artist Statement & Philosophy
Artist Statement:
I never look at something and see nothing. When creating art, and from the point of my focus, my mind surveys a blank surface, and I transcribe a series of marks, lines, or voluminous forms out of loose graphite. This is the building stage, and I have no idea what it will evolve into. I guard my willingness to be informed by what I am looking at, gently foregoing my will to create what I think, and instead, only create what I see.
Consciousness, and the study of what that exactly is, is foremost in my life. I have a daily meditation practice of multiple sittings, of 45 minutes to an hour each. Meditation is a tool within which I have learned that I am more than my physical body; I have realized that everything is energy and vibration, and this fact often causes me to reflect on the source of this energy, both scientifically and spiritually.
Within the meditative state, I have learned that there are “levels” of ever-higher realms of insight. There are landscapes and vistas, people, cities, groups. There is anything you can imagine, and what I can imagine has increased in meaning, clarity, and focus. I am living in two worlds. What I see and experience in meditation, which I now realize is produced via a collaborative effort between the “I” of self, absent of ego, and my Higher Self, has improved my creativity, and become fully manifest in heightened understanding of the neutrality of the world around me. I experience the world as a reflection of my mind, and by exercising my highest passion, and pursuing it, my days are filled with synchronicities, epiphanies and miracles; I always have just what I need, and I am always in the right place, always.
My drawings are visual experiments in which I maintain a meditative state for prolonged periods of time. As I look at the mark-making (described above), I ask myself, “What is here?” There is never “nothing” there. There is always a dot, or an impression in the paper from something having touched it. There may be a slightly greater impression of the paper creation process on parts. Regardless of the surface, my mind projects whole landscapes and complete pictures, but in the process of tracing what I see, more detail is suddenly revealed.
I have realized that in the initial stages of the process of seeing, my mark-making creates illusions that morph into geometric visual paradoxes. For example, one group of marks and tones suggests ideas and indicates possible images developing, and when I note there is an arc, a half circle, near the line, a plethora of new possibilities opens up. I constantly ask myself, “What is here?” And, through the dynamic of association of line, shape, tone, and proximity, illusions of space appear, and a visual paradox is created that forces my mind to either answer the above question with, “Nothing is there” (which is never the case, ever), or, I sit still and watch myself copy what I see until a realization of illusion and paradox occur.
By watching, instead of mentally pushing myself onto the paper, effectively forcing the imagination, and creating an “uninformed drawing”, I instead maintain a meditative state that is simultaneously tranquil and at peace, but active and interactive. Within this, a magical point of observation arises, in which an entire, completed section of the drawing is miraculously, and suddenly evident, and all I have to do is erase a bit, or tighten up a line, or shape with subtraction and retrace. Images of my subconscious and Higher Mind are simultaneously accessed, translated and transcribed. By way of this process, I effectively eliminate expectations for performance and workmanship because using this process puts inner peace, tranquility, love, joy, and acceptance foremost into the experience: I trust that what I see cannot be wrong, flawed, or incorrect, and that every mark, erasure, emphasis of line, is the result of an energetic, intuitive connection to Higher States of Awareness. I observe what appears, an illusion evolves, a paradox occurs, and this creates a “window” for a completed drawing to be seen. I only then must transcribe it. I watch; it appears.
I never look at something and see nothing. When creating art, and from the point of my focus, my mind surveys a blank surface, and I transcribe a series of marks, lines, or voluminous forms out of loose graphite. This is the building stage, and I have no idea what it will evolve into. I guard my willingness to be informed by what I am looking at, gently foregoing my will to create what I think, and instead, only create what I see.
Consciousness, and the study of what that exactly is, is foremost in my life. I have a daily meditation practice of multiple sittings, of 45 minutes to an hour each. Meditation is a tool within which I have learned that I am more than my physical body; I have realized that everything is energy and vibration, and this fact often causes me to reflect on the source of this energy, both scientifically and spiritually.
Within the meditative state, I have learned that there are “levels” of ever-higher realms of insight. There are landscapes and vistas, people, cities, groups. There is anything you can imagine, and what I can imagine has increased in meaning, clarity, and focus. I am living in two worlds. What I see and experience in meditation, which I now realize is produced via a collaborative effort between the “I” of self, absent of ego, and my Higher Self, has improved my creativity, and become fully manifest in heightened understanding of the neutrality of the world around me. I experience the world as a reflection of my mind, and by exercising my highest passion, and pursuing it, my days are filled with synchronicities, epiphanies and miracles; I always have just what I need, and I am always in the right place, always.
My drawings are visual experiments in which I maintain a meditative state for prolonged periods of time. As I look at the mark-making (described above), I ask myself, “What is here?” There is never “nothing” there. There is always a dot, or an impression in the paper from something having touched it. There may be a slightly greater impression of the paper creation process on parts. Regardless of the surface, my mind projects whole landscapes and complete pictures, but in the process of tracing what I see, more detail is suddenly revealed.
I have realized that in the initial stages of the process of seeing, my mark-making creates illusions that morph into geometric visual paradoxes. For example, one group of marks and tones suggests ideas and indicates possible images developing, and when I note there is an arc, a half circle, near the line, a plethora of new possibilities opens up. I constantly ask myself, “What is here?” And, through the dynamic of association of line, shape, tone, and proximity, illusions of space appear, and a visual paradox is created that forces my mind to either answer the above question with, “Nothing is there” (which is never the case, ever), or, I sit still and watch myself copy what I see until a realization of illusion and paradox occur.
By watching, instead of mentally pushing myself onto the paper, effectively forcing the imagination, and creating an “uninformed drawing”, I instead maintain a meditative state that is simultaneously tranquil and at peace, but active and interactive. Within this, a magical point of observation arises, in which an entire, completed section of the drawing is miraculously, and suddenly evident, and all I have to do is erase a bit, or tighten up a line, or shape with subtraction and retrace. Images of my subconscious and Higher Mind are simultaneously accessed, translated and transcribed. By way of this process, I effectively eliminate expectations for performance and workmanship because using this process puts inner peace, tranquility, love, joy, and acceptance foremost into the experience: I trust that what I see cannot be wrong, flawed, or incorrect, and that every mark, erasure, emphasis of line, is the result of an energetic, intuitive connection to Higher States of Awareness. I observe what appears, an illusion evolves, a paradox occurs, and this creates a “window” for a completed drawing to be seen. I only then must transcribe it. I watch; it appears.