ARTIST'S STATEMENT These images feature sharply defined red, blue, green photographic grains that merge into various combinations. Falling stars become grains of sand that become shadowy forms that become fully formed objects.
The distinct photographic grains are characteristic of a long-disappeared analog film (Agfa 1000) that was developed to increase light sensitivity and shorten exposure times. This grainy appearance proved unpopular for general use, but is perfect for my vision. I have incorporated digitally-captured high-resolution images with minimal pixel content for added “realism.”
In this portfolio, various analog (grainy) and digital (pixel) elements are re-arranged by digital compositing to give a surreal, but philosophically accurate, image. The distant point-like stars are transformed by our imagination into recognizable meaning (e.g., constellations), often grounded in stereotype, myth, and god-like figures. The fallen stars (grains of sand) become seeds that germinate into plants, animals, and humans.
To see the World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower Hold infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an Hour. by William Blake
Mystical experience and modern physics are complementary. In Hindu and Buddhist thought, illusion is the failure to recognize that our “scientific” categorizing and discriminating tendency may lead to pain and suffering. Models of subatomic physics have confirmed that the constituents of matter are inter-connected and inter-related. In quantum theory, for example, the existence of matter cannot be found in a definite place, but is only a “tendency to exist” and is profoundly influenced by the observer and his methods of observation (e.g., equipment).
This slanting of reality is evident in the methods used in this portfolio. In the image, "Birds in Paradise Lost," the grains in the background coalesce into seed, become wheat, then unite with the air and return to the stars. The primordial elements form “solid” birds, who will die and eventually decompose. The cycle continues.
Glass figures in most of the compositions represent living beings. In the image, "Flower Constellation," the glass flower emerges from the starry night sky. Glass is the embodiment of transformation. Its own existence is the result of a radical re-forming of base substances that resemble none of its ancestors (e.g., sand and fire). As light passes through glass, a further transformation occurs in both color and form. The result is a magical transmutation of the essence of matter.
This work blends Synthetism, Expressionism, and Symbolism. It is Synthetist in the sense of a breakdown in the natural appearance of things in order to allow a recombination of my own choosing. As Maurice Denis said:
Remember that a picture before being a war horse, a nude, or some sort of anecdote is essentially a flat surface covered with colors assembled in a certain order …for the pleasure of the eye.
It is Expressionist in the use of color in a seemingly arbitrary way to convey emotional meaning and ideas as opposed to color that is descriptive. It is Symbolist in presenting each image as a transformation, a caricature, or an equivalent of some important internal archetype, image, myth, or symbol—in other words, a “forest of symbols.”
