Early, Raw, Uncooked...

Looking at a few earlier pieces today...talking very early...the painting below is from 25 years ago - not too long after the exhilarating stay in Rome, via RISD - where I got to do whatever I wanted - haha! Now, I still get to do what I want - but I gotta pay for it (in more ways than one!) Its nice to see some progress and to see a continuity in exploration at least. As a younger artist, art-making was all about ideas, but the older you get it just starts being about who you are....

Deus Ex Machina ( Total ) - with a very helpful explanation to boot....

I've never been particularly interested in painting pictures to hang on walls for decoration...its been more of a visual odyssey exploring the metaphysical universe of my subconscious and its relation/ my relation to the infinite ... and, like Icarus, I'm always compelled to reach beyond my limits and come crashing down... case in point: this latest image began with a very modest mind-set wherein I was going to paint what I called "A Fragment of a Mystery" - realizing maybe that's all we can hope for in this lifetime. I even painted it in a horizontal (sofa-sized) format, which I haven't used in a long time - thinking - I'm really, really going to keep it to a single image/canvas this time....
just exploring the emotions contained within abstract elements in metaphysical space - coming to life - so to speak....

I was content with it at first, but gradually my mind, as usual, began to "see" the image expanding outward in space. First, I created its reflection on the computer (as I am want to do - I find reflective imagery fascinating and an apt way of looking at manifested reality being a mere reflection of the unseen) . And, of course I began to see many "masks" staring at me, enticing me to go on...

And again, the image expanded in my mind, so I added another canvas to the top and painted away. After that, I added another to the bottom to reach my blasphemous "Godhead" - trembling, holding together just long enough to satisfy my insatiable need "to see it all", after which it falls apart - really more a masquerade, a distraction - and I fall to earth again.....back into Mystery.

What's interesting to me is I see how the boundaries of the canvas are very superficial to me - just a momentary enclosure for what's "moving around in the space of my imagination."
I'm obsessed with the expansion of space and form and light and the "higher emotions those evoke" - plain and simple ( as many painters are) - and the nice thing is this one image can be broken down into wonderful "decorations" to accent any living area - haha!

the top and middle sections (below) are a "stand-alone" pair that offer endless hours of viewing pleasure - kind of reminds me of a coral reef - but with abstract, painting elements coming to life standing in for the fish, etc!

Working....

No studio to work in at the moment - at least I have the living room... I'm crazy, restless for space right now - large paintings and sculpture wanting to be made...keep thinking about how Michaelangelo never got to finish the sculptures for the Pope's tomb the way he so desperately wanted to. The Pope had him painting away in the Sistine Chapel for years...even the greats didn't always have things go their way...sigh.