There are times when one looks back in time and remembers glimpses of what came before.  Visually, one’s eyes are isolated to perceiving what is now, however through images, pieces of time can be superimposed.  Time and animation are integral elements in my dynamic still life paintings.  During their lives, butterflies are creatures that themselves undergo great change.  They start as insects bound to the earth and transform into wonders of flight.

In these paintings, the simplified patterns of wings, closely cropped, tend to eclipse the creaturely nature of each butterfly.  Diagonal orientation of some canvases adds to the energy of the image.  This position breaks convention and presents a shape that can be referential to transition.

The details of how wings open: the way that sometimes light falls on the wings creating a translucent glow, reminiscent of stained glass, and how the patterns foreshorten as the wings open, add to the sense of movement, and at times rhythm, in the paintings.

A continuous and ‘unlimited’ conversation is encouraged by the use of short poetic titles.  These names can be understood as word plays on the butterfly’s name, but can also relate to time, refined beauty, and challenges overcome.

Patterns in Flight.  Patterns of movement, color, and light. Sometimes a pattern manifests where no pattern exists; patterns are implied but not actualized.  These paintings are not static butterflies, collected and mounted, but elusive creatures in flight.

This is an interesting time to introduce this mini-series as the time corresponds to the Easter season.  However, instead of intricate designs upon eggs, I have placed brown eggshells in a pattern with an emphasis on their present emptiness.  They are the remnants or shells of what was once there.  The eggshell is broken. To me the shell is something that has been overcome.  Think about times when you have grown and developed and broken out of a shell and left the pieces leading up to the empty shell.  The shell has been conquered and lies overcome.  The pieces point to the emptiness and defeat of what the shell stood for.

The word “articulation” denotes a joint of bones, a correlation or interconnection of ideas, or an act of utterance. This body of work “articulates articulations.” Using joint-like articulations to create titles, the names of the works are meant to prompt a contemplative connecting that starts between the verbal and the visual. These works were created, on both material and contemplative levels, in order to suggest particularity of relationships, life, and quintessential hope.

Here, drawings and paintings present moveable joints of human, skeletal, dry bones. Dramatically lit artificial skeletons are placed in settings that include drapery, glass, panel, and/or negative spaces of marks that react to the joint. The orientation of the paper for the drawings, which suggests portrait space, complements the orientation of the paintings, which prompts a more environmental, horizontal setting. Sometimes there is a piece of glass in the background that reflects the bone in a way that may parallel the ‘reflection’ of the bone in the viewer. When this happens, a type of trinity emerges as an intersection of the following ideas: general lifelessness (mere reflection on glass), possibility for actualization (given joint), and the realized life of the viewer. Sometimes the negative spaces seem interwoven into a reaction of the positive joint. Perhaps there is a struggle or energy reflecting life. Purposefully, in order to join the negative and positive space, the joints are often placed in non-central locations in the works. Then again, the background might be a tangible thing such as a panel or drapery that allows a shadow to fall against it. Consequently, a second trio of shadow, object, and reflection might appear.

Perhaps one can consider the implications of a treatment of craft that reflects the tenuous, life, texture, and color of a bone. The support is primed in order to be reminiscent of the texture and color of bone. Bone illusions are formed using additive (graphite/turpentine, or paint) and subtractive (eraser, or rag) work that is layered complexly, and created in a manner that flows from larger general forms toward more particular detail. The pace of gesture and calligraphic marks, that acquires strength as the joint forms illusionally, begins with a “gestural core.” This is commonly associated with responsive “life” drawing. A somewhat theatric setting, described through intentional lighting and diagonal directions of the cropped, enlarged joints of bones, is the stage in which fairly aggressive marks create an ironic sense of detail. A whole person approach to drawing, including an athletic response of the body and mark maker to the referent, results in marks that are particular, corrected, and layered. A combination of referent and the faith of the drawer-painter perhaps created and stirred life on the page. In fact, when these were created, the maker was in a shadow and cried out with every work for the life and renewal to continue forth from inner wells of hope and faith.

These depictions were created with the purpose of life rather than some cultural iconography which connects deadening cliche of bones to death. Oil color, applied in limited palates, may infer possible vitality in the referent through relation and juxtaposition of value, hue, and saturation. A narrative is formed as these joints, which are incomplete, come together and interact in a process of renewal. One bone selflessly gives way as the other advances. Their shapes are formed in order to fit and interact in a beautiful empathy. In the perfected joint there is a true freedom for the members. Due to this infinite uniqueness, a perfected communion between the members arises. This freedom is within the purpose, however, for which they, as support and connection points, have been made.

Titles here are meant to suggest a direction of thought without thought being “contained” ichnographically. The titles, works, and statement run free from containment and frames because there is life and great potential for further change and growth. The “articulating” and “articulations” continue.

View this series, Compose Not Decay: Articulating Articulations

This series investigates a world in which time overlaps, and bones are observed as either moving as a joint or assembling to create a single entity. It begins with bones that are moving as a unit and develops into an exploration of how the parts of a joint unite to create a whole. The first few pieces in this body experiment with light radiating from the bones. The titles of these earlier works reflect the movement as a whole. Later works use theatrical light to create a fluid stage upon which the bones can narrate. Their titles initiate contemplation on the selfless accommodation for each other as they unite to form a single joint. Supports for these paintings shift from canvases to rough wood panels with natural texture that parallels the organic bone surface.

These depictions were painted to portray life rather than following the cultural iconography that connects the deadening metaphor of bones to death. Oil color, applied in limited palettes, infers possible vitality in the referent through relation and juxtaposition of value, hue, and saturation. Joints of bones are of interest not only because they are at the physical core of our stability and mechanics but also particular compound subjects which inter-relate. This relation is not solely intimate but free and purposeful. A narrative is formed as these joints, which are incomplete, assemble and interact in a process of renewal. One bone selflessly gives way as the other advances. Their shapes are formed in order to fit and interact in a beautiful empathy. In the ideal joint, there is a true freedom for its members. The purpose of the joint is support and connection, and this freedom is bounded within that purpose. Due to this infinite uniqueness of action, a perfected communion arises between its members.

View the series, Action, Unification