Volkan

Acrylic on 4 sheets paper, each sheet 13" x 11", 2011
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I've been playing with manipulating the paint using trowels and scraping tools. Each piece is done independently, then later I start putting them in arrangements like this. The search is for a visual narrative--a point where each segment starts rhythmically "speaking" to the others.

I plan to mount these sheets on cradled supports and then varnish, so they won't require framing under glass.

Heaven and Earth

Charcoal on paper, eight sheets arranged in vertical pairs
Each pair approx. 44" x 26"
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Detail, #1

Detail, #3

Currents (Heaven and Earth)

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Charcoal on paper, 4 sheets, each sheet 22" x 30", 2011
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Four Stones (Higher Ground)

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Four Stones (Higher Ground)

Oil on board, 4 panels, each panel 23" x 23", 2009

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Four Stones (Higher Ground) Studio view

Detail, Four Stones (Higher Ground)

Oil on board, 23" x 23"

Detail, Four Stones (Higher Ground)

Oil on board, 23" x 23"

Detail, Four Stones (Higher Ground)
Oil on board, 23" x 23"

Nine Stones

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Nine Stones (Progression 1)

Oil on board, 2 panels, each panel 23" x 23", 2009

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Nine Stones (Progression 2)

Oil on board, 3 panels, each panel 23" x 23", 2009

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Nine Stones (Progression 3)

Oil on board, 4 panels, each panel 23" x 23"

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Nine Stones (detail from Progression 1)

Oil on board, 23" x 23"



Nine Stones (detail from Progression 2)

Oil on board, 23" x 23"

Nine Stones (detail from Progression 3)

Oil on board, 23" x 23"



Nine Stones (detail from Progression 3)
Oil on board, 23" x 23"

This series is intended as a single work, composed of  nine separate panels.  They are displayed in three groupings, or "progressions", with 11" spacing between panels.

The piece had a pretty prosaic beginning. It grew out of my becoming aware of boulders that had been placed around the edge of a small gravel parking lot out at Ladd Marsh, near my home. Their repetition and regular spacing appealed to me--I had done paintings in the past using multiple panels and repeated images.  Their visual narratives always seemed to me to be reflections on the nature of time and states of change.

I got to thinking about these common rocks, and how uncommon they really are. Native American and other indigenous peoples around the world think of the entire earth as a living organism, while the history of our modern culture has been one of separating humans from nature. It occurred to me that the only reason we think of a rock as inanimate is because its lifespan is unimaginably longer than our own. Suddenly I could sense the "life" in these stones, as a vital part of the living earth.

In the paintings, it seemed important to stay true to their individual shapes--after all, these are "portraits." It may seem silly, but it's even important to me that they are displayed in the order I've placed them, which is their actual relationship at the Marsh. But I've tried to paint them in a way that is less literal, in hopes of expressing the living energy I sense in them. My hope was to somehow ground them in observed reality, while at the same time implying a larger reality beyond our comprehension.