Afoot in the Garden
Acrylic on board, 23" x 23"
Between
Acrylic on board, 23" x 23"
These paintings may be complete, but will need some getting acquainted time before it's decided for sure.
I try to begin at square one with each blank canvas--to empty out preconceived ideas and just start applying paint as randomly as possible. Paintings will live a life of their own, if you will let them. In the midst of this process I try to listen to the painting instead of bossing it around. A give and take evolves between my intuitive nature--where I really want to stay--and the analytical side, which inevitably starts asserting itself as I make decisions on which leads to follow.
I've been wanting for a long time to re-introduce figures into the paintings, so with these two works I'm jumping in the water.
Artists and writers - like ritual magicians - know that the ego, the conscious self, does not really create anything. Instead, all our training and preparation serves to allow us to get out of the way. Something moves through us. Something wants to be created. This is what it means to experience magic, to open yourself to the power of life.
