Balance… the body of my art attempts to visualize levels of living experience. I believe, our lives are not a set of easily defined givens, but a complex of experiences that require responses that reflect who we are.

What does that mean? (click to read more)

Each day we engage in experiences with people and places and our responses express our understanding of those experiences. For example, sometimes our response to a situation may be very relaxed and informal as with friends, family and those who know us very well.

 

That represents one level.

 

With coworkers and with acquaintances we respond in a different and perhaps more reserved manner. In a formal situation we facilitate an even more reserved presentation of our selves, we may sense that we are less our selves and more a self that is required for the situation. In the course of any given day we may express several levels of our self to suit a situation. In aviation terms its known as situational awareness, knowing where you are at any given moment with a response required to keep safe and balanced.

 

My art reflects the multifaceted levels of living experience and balance. Look at the imagery, staircases, bubble tops with indications of something going on below the surface and corners that disappear into shadows. One level hovers over another in search of a balance and a sense of wellness.

 

Each time we engage in experience we test the limits. We may feel compelled to explore the limits of our ability. In the course of our lives we may find it difficult to maintain our sense of balance.

 

Why is balance such a central part of our life composition?

 

Balance gives us a sense of place, a feeling of wellness and knowing. Like the compositions of my art, balance in life is achieved through the living experience of trial and error. We keep exploring our options until we discover a balanced self. In my art I keep exploring my visual options until I discover a balance I want to express. Adaptation is also a part of searching for a balanced life. In my art, I explore the use of images that I call upon again and again in an adaptive presentation that expresses the story I want to tell.

 

I call these repeating images my visual language.

 

All the elements of my composition are arranged to tell a story. Some of the images that are repeated and can be found in my art are circles that represent divine presence, looking over creation, without beginning, without end. Staircases may represent the unknown, possibility as well as reaching for the divine. Stick and crescent images represent our imploring of divine intervention, prayer. Guide wires from which elements of the composition hang are representative of a level of divinity, an order to the universe instead of a random infinite abyss.

 

Balance.

 

Through the years, I found my body of artwork connected by a symbolic language that seemed to have universal appeal and give voice to my understanding of the world around me. As a language, my visual images seemed to present few boundaries from which I could express the stories I wanted to tell.

 

Over time I began to realize an underlying formula that seemed to establish a rational for the composition of the images I created. I learned that my visual language had a power I could call upon to help my understanding of the world seemingly filled with so many ambiguities, some serious, some comical, some secular and some profoundly spiritual.

 

Balance.