Cardinal
Suite, a set of four mural size (10' X 24') paintings, executed
in 1984-86, is based on motifs distilled from ideas about natural and abstract
forms. Each painting depicts a single monochrome form painted in one of
the three primary colors, plus green. The four elements form a complementary
set of symbols, together constituting a symbolic microcosm reflecting on
the relationship between humankind and cosmic creation.
The
Easter Cycle, a suite of ten paintings from
1985, considers the connections between art's spiritual roots and those
of religion and psychology. Through the use of basic geometric elements
rendered in expressive, painterly gestures the suite compares the awakening
and flowering of nature during the onset of springtime with the psychological
processes of individuation and spiritual sublimation. Evoking the themes
of growth, resurrection
and transcendence through the use of the rectangular mandala form as the
combined symbol of nature and the human psyche, these paintings are meditations
on the duality of human life, as they affirm the indissoluble bond between
spirit and matter.
Ode
to Nature, a suite of twelve paintings from 1985-86, explores natural
structures throughout different levels of life: from the subatomic to the
cosmic, and from the mineral to the organic. These elemental, yet compositionally
complex paintings express the harmony of natural law underlying Creation.
The
Rhapsodies, a series of fifteen paintings from 1986, celebrates
the process of creation from the metaphysical level of archetypes to their
material manifestation in the universe of form. Partly about nature and
partly about the realm of abstract ideas, the Rhapsodies trace the transmutation
of concepts into manifest forms across the subtle boundary between energy
and matter.
The
Birth of Venus, a series of twenty paintings
from 1987, considers the realm of pure abstraction: that divine dimension
of infinite potential prior to creation. Venus, the goddess of beauty and
art, was born from the undifferentiated ocean through divine conception.
These paintings, pregnant with the potential of infinite manifestation,
are metaphoric of the abstract, dimensionless realm of First Principles.
They evoke the initial stirrings of the creative process, as pure thought
conceives the distinctions and organizing principles underlying the universe
of forms.
The
Diamonds, a series
of 52 diamond shaped canvases from 1988-92, concentrates on the
expressive qualities of this dynamic and graceful form. At once self-contained
and expansive, symbolic of inner strength and outward radiance, the diamond
embodies the principles of growth and contraction, emptiness and fullness
characteristic of universal life cycles.
More Diamonds Galleries:
White
Diamonds Black Diamonds Blue
Diamonds Green
Diamonds Yellow Diamonds Red
Diamonds
A
Cappella, a suite from 1990, consists of 32
diamond shaped paintings. Originally installed at the Cathedral
Church of St. John the Divine in New York City, the individual paintings
act as unique voices within the context of the larger group to speak of
the range of inner spiritual and emotional experience. [A
Cappella - Italian: "in the church style," performance of
a polyphonic (multipart) musical work by unaccompanied voices. Originally
referring to sacred choral music, the term now refers to secular music
as well.]
In
the Garden, a suite of 15 charcoal, pastel and india ink drawings
from 1982-84 explores and summarizes some of the graphic possibilities
of a visual vocabulary of complementary signs and symbols derived from
studies of sacred geometry and natural morphology.
Ode
to Venus, I and 
Ode
to Venus, II, a related series of charcoal and pastel drawings
from 1986 are variations on the segmented rectangle and the four-way loop.
The harmonies and symmetries of these drawings' fluid, intersecting lines
are visual songs of praise to Venus's feminine beauty and radiance.
The
Big Universe, a suite of drypoint-monotype prints from 1979-80
explores broad-pattern universal structures. To make these prints, simple
linear compositions are first "drypoint" scratched with a steel
stylus onto large, (36" X 24") copper plates. When thick etching
ink is rubbed on the plates with tarlatan, the grooved designs and wiped
surfaces hold the ink, forming an image. A unique "monotype"
print is created when a moistened sheet of printmaking paper is placed
upon an inked copper plate and "pulled" through an etching press,
transferring the image onto the paper.
In the Garden Etchings, Book V (Jornada
del Muerto), the fifth part from a suite of 133 etchings comprising nine "books," or related
groups of prints. This group of six etchings and accompanying text in Spanish was originally published in the Spanish e-zine RIGOR MORTIS under the title of "Jornada del Muerto," or "Dead Man's Journey," as a poetic homage to the history
of a portion of the Camino Real near our home, so named because of the utter desolation
of the badlands landscape through which it passes, and because of events
involving a tribe of Native American Indians at the time, the unfortunate
fate of a certain German trader, "witchcraft," and the Spanish
Inquisitor...and then, there is also the explosion of the first atomic
bomb in these parts three centuries later...
In
the Garden Etchings, Book VI, the sixth part
from a suite of 133 etchings comprising nine "books," or related
groups of prints. The suite in its entirety represents a kind of encyclopedic
culmination and survey of the development of imagery in my works. The rest
of the books await digitalization and will be presented here from time
to time.
Guest
Artists' Galleries A subjective selection
of guest artists' works representing the rich variety of visual expression.
Artist's Statement
My recent paintings are part of a continuing series of painting-cycles begun in 1984 exploring diverse aspects of cosmic creation. They deal in part with the evolution of universally significant pictorial systems from elemental, abstract marks and forms.
The connections between basic spatial configurations in nature and art were some of the starting points of my explorations of how the "grammar" of rhythm and energy activates principles of Sacred Geometry to create natural forms.
In considering art as a metaphor for cosmic creation, and of the artist for the Prime Creator, my work is concerned with how things come to be, and with how and what they may become.
Art's ability to encompass the fields of physical science, psychology, philosophy, religion and myth enables it to weave meaningful images out of the individual strands of knowledge from other, more restrictively focused disciplines. Future works will continue this wide-ranging exploration of how meaning emerges in abstract art and in art's potential for providing insight into the nature of life.
I like to make paintings that are alive, that breathe and glow, that are light, enduring; that are nourishing, healing and benign; that are generous, grand and expansive; that reflect the brightest sublime expression of all that is best and highest in us.
