Artist Statement to 2013

My art originates in my subconscious and becomes visible though the act of painting. It is a constantly unfolding conversation between  body, mind and spirit.

I begin painting with no preconceived notion and react to the paint as it comes off the brush, feeling for a kind of resonance within the paint and the process.  An attentiveness similar to that which I experience during meditation comes over me.

Certain forms, symbols, passages and pinch points emerge.  The circle and its relationships are often pivotal to the composition. Other shapes enter and  find their place. Sometimes this process takes on a visceral or skeletal format. Sometimes, that of a landscape. In recent years, the work has been a response to forest fire. Colour mixes itself on the surface of the painting or calls to be included by appearing as a word in my mind.  Transparency and inner light are important and if they are lost the painting dies.  The compositional dance continues until all forms and marks agree to live in peace with each other. Only then does the painting release me.

If I do not paint in this manner, the painting becomes self conscious and shuts down. It is a matter of remaining open until all that wishes to surface has done so.

I draw strength from all the abstract and expressionist painters  of the 19th and 20th  centuries but revere Helen Frankenthaler the most.   And my long association with of 5 element chinese medical practice and art therapy allows me to trust and recognize what comes down the brush.