About Me

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United States
I am a multidimensional, hands-on creative artist and poet with a San Diego based home studio. Having always been too curious and too creative, I have continually studied a variety of artistic disciplines and philosophies throughout my life with established teachers...unstable teachers, artists, schools and whatnot. This, paired with a lifelong investigation into spirituality, has given me a large creative toolkit from which to draw ;) and interest to (respectively) play with, break, challenge, modify, ignore and celebrate the rules related to the aforementioned studies. I am a strong believer in not messing with a child's innate curiosity and wonder, the value of family (however defined), individual creativity, community, and our environment. I continue to study and enjoy creative expressions-with the exception of acid jazz. Some common characteristics found within my work are: re-purposing everyday items and discard-able things, harmonizing opposites, playing with current beliefs and assumptions with a whimsical twist, and delicately blending spontaneity with discipline. The end results are simple, joyful expressions of wonder imbued with an invitation to discover more.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Invention - The Eye Of The Beholder Paintings (part 2) - Word Art










The technique highlights how the viewer of a painting or piece of visual art is also the artist of the piece. Like when one is reading – the visual world of the reader is ignited and guided by the author, but the ultimate story comes alive, uniquely, within each reader. Art too, though the physical art piece is right in front of the viewer, comes alive, uniquely, within each viewer --- each reader/viewer interprets stimuli through their own unique dictionary of terms, judgments and reactions. I have started the series by touching on basic painting subject matter i.e. portrait, still life, landscape, cityscape, seascape etc. and am moving through artistic movements, specific famous paintings, iconic painters, expanding into iconic images and characters -- from any realm, historical period and events. All the while using less and less words within the painting. Ultimately, demonstrating how a word or name is defined within the viewer themselves. And that the mind can become so quick to define a visual stimuli (aka: make an assumption) that the viewer no longer takes the time to actually “see” and “process” or experience what is actually, physically in front of them. The mind is painting a whole scene within the viewer that is full of emotion, feeling and evoking an experience that actually has little to do with the actual moment. The viewer is just standing in front of a painted white canvas hanging on a wall...
A canvas that has a few marks of ink on it...
Marks of ink that happen to be in shapes of what our culture has all agreed upon: to stand for a sound...
Symbols our mind’s have recognized when put together make, what we define, as a word...
These words stand for defined concepts (and when spoken, make familiar sounds or when read, silently or aloud, trigger a picture/experience within the mind and ultimately within the body of the individual).
Depending on the subject matter of the series painting, the trigger can be quite evident.
This awareness is possible for the viewer, because the viewer can see that the canvases in front of them offers them so very little and yet the viewer is experiencing something quite profound.
Ultimately, through the end section of the series, the viewer is offered the opportunity to realize that they are the actual artist of all of the paintings they've seen, the realization can be quite expansive... often lighting smiles and laughter. Quite beautiful.