In the years since my retirement from teaching art at MiraCosta College my sole
medium has been painting. My art owes much to my earlier study of landscape painting
and my continued interest in the vistas laid out before us as we traverse our Earth
environment, and to the land's horizontal counterpoint to our vertical stance. And
also to Cezanne's re-morphing of landscape and realistic imagery in general as well
as the cubists' portrayal of space.
To the best of my abilities I am playing with reality and bringing to my art whatever
truth I can. And of course bringing to view whatever turns me on.
I can accept that the over-all process of the Universe is from
order to disorder. But I have always found it hard to believe that this process of
entropy moves in some smooth and relentless path from total symmetric order at the
big bang to total disorder at some final end.
My knowledge and experience of Earth is that things start simple and become complex.
From amoeba to human. From firelight to electric bulb. From paint on a pallet to a
painted masterpiece. It seems to me that the two states, total symmetry and total
randomness, are equally empty and that life is in the dance between them.
My art as I currently practice it is like playing between order and chaos where both
processes are dueling and dancing. And my artwork is what I can bring forward from
that playing field, from that zone of engagement, filled with stress and actuation,
that I imagine to exist between symmetry and chaos, a special moment in the process
of cosmic entropy, a degree of stability to put on the wall, so I can contemplate,
meditate and have some kind of experience of life dance.
And my craftsmanship is that I can find and stage the conflict and play of forces
of a worthy moment in the reality of my playing field. The rules and forms are ad
hoc, not formalized, not distanced from the art performance and the original energy
and vitality.
As an additional note: the following paintings are printed
printed 32" by 40". They need to be large to confront you
with their colors patterns and textures. Unfortunately the
current computer display medium doesn't allow that size, so
please use your imagination.
