All the paintings of “183 Views of Laurentia” are landscapes in that they are deposits of paint in varying strata across a picture plane. Upon a surface, often thick with textures and collages, the nonobjective abstract imagery of those paintings explore the colors of natural phenomena to create the semblance of geological formations applied across the surface [landscape] picture plane of the painting.
In my current paintings, as was the case with the artworks of the “Laurentian” series,
I never make finished preliminary studies of where I want a painting to end before beginning. Other than assembling various media colors and tools close at hand to select from, I begin with an intense concentration upon the blank surface for a suggestion of what the painting wants me to do next and how it wants me to do it.
The choices of colors, media, textures [if not already applied], and other design decisions are inspired from my odyssey through a lifetime of eclectic studies in Art, Philosophy, Mythology and Eastern Religions, especially Buddhism of which I am an adherent. However, my paintings are emotional responses to those stimuli and not illustrations related to any content from those subject areas; nor are the titles of my paintings suggestions of imagery the viewer should expect to see illustrated in the paintings.
The non-objective, spontaneous immediacy of abstract expressionist methods are the visual language I choose for my “conversations” with my paintings. Each painting is about spontaneous responses to what develops within the boundaries of the painting, upon the “landscapeness” of the picture plane. My gestures are forceful assaults mostly in direct contact with the painting surface.
The lively conversation progresses through instantaneous creative choices developing the imagery of the composition-no-composition until, finally, the conversation concludes and the painting tells me there is nothing more to do.
Each painting is as different as the subject matter of the conversation inspired by music and memories. Every painting is an exciting, mysterious visual experience from the pure, intuitive essence of the creative process. I never know where each conversation will lead me.