“Real Freedom cannot exist without Discipline. By Discipline I mean all those things that are synthesized in a mature personality: understanding and love, honesty, control and order, self criticism and above all the ability to see reality without fear…” Maricio Lasansky, born 1914, Argentine-American print maker
“Less is a bore.” Robert Venturi
“There is no right way to do anything.” Raoul Duffy
“Shape is a chord, line is the melody.” Gerald Brommer
“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than success, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company … a church … a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we embrace for that day. We cannot change our past … we cannot change the fact that people act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have and that is our attitude … I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you … we are in charge of our attitudes.” Chuck Swindoll
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Painting and Spirituality
Unless you are painting ambiguous abstractions, all paintings are symbols, or a collection of symbols. In my work I have been trying to synthesize texture, rhythm and color into symbols of nature, to imbue a transcendent landscape with symbolic significance. It is my desire as my work progresses and my skills grow, that I begin to capture a calm sense of spirituality in the images, despite the heavy collage and calligraphic marks that are clear upon close examination. This focus on a transcendent symbolism and spirituality is of importance to me as an individual and artist.
Famous artists such as Mark Rothko devoted an entire body of work to capturing Spirituality. The famous monochrome painter Robert Ryman, when asked what a painting should communicate to the viewer stated “An experience of…enlightenment. An experience of delight and well being, and rightness.” While these artists focused on large color fields and the treatment of edges, they both grasped the fundamental experience of a painting as a spiritual symbol.
So why paint landscapes to symbolize spirituality? Properly captured, an idealized image can transport a viewer and reflect a calm, inner beauty that resides in all. Pictorially, the Tree has symbolized Nature with a capital “N,” strength, growth, ecological commitment, sometimes a barrier, and the obvious Christian symbolism. As an image, it can be manipulated to present mood, humor and intent, and therefore it provides a solid symbolic reference for a landscape.
I am not alone is seeking to portray a spirituality through my painting, and in the future I will highlight some of my favorite fellow artists who strive to paint the spiritual, whether abstract or concrete, realistic or through personal imagery.
The past month my spare time has been devoted to actually painting, so I have had little time for this journal. I completed 4 paintings and started 4 more, which gives me a sense of accomplishment. The four finished works were “Sentinels,” “Autumn 3,” “Spring Morning,” and “Storm Cloud,” all of which will be posted on the site as soon as possible. These recent works depict a broadening of the symbols to include new shapes and landscapes. I hope you enjoy them. Happy New Year!
Famous artists such as Mark Rothko devoted an entire body of work to capturing Spirituality. The famous monochrome painter Robert Ryman, when asked what a painting should communicate to the viewer stated “An experience of…enlightenment. An experience of delight and well being, and rightness.” While these artists focused on large color fields and the treatment of edges, they both grasped the fundamental experience of a painting as a spiritual symbol.
So why paint landscapes to symbolize spirituality? Properly captured, an idealized image can transport a viewer and reflect a calm, inner beauty that resides in all. Pictorially, the Tree has symbolized Nature with a capital “N,” strength, growth, ecological commitment, sometimes a barrier, and the obvious Christian symbolism. As an image, it can be manipulated to present mood, humor and intent, and therefore it provides a solid symbolic reference for a landscape.
I am not alone is seeking to portray a spirituality through my painting, and in the future I will highlight some of my favorite fellow artists who strive to paint the spiritual, whether abstract or concrete, realistic or through personal imagery.
The past month my spare time has been devoted to actually painting, so I have had little time for this journal. I completed 4 paintings and started 4 more, which gives me a sense of accomplishment. The four finished works were “Sentinels,” “Autumn 3,” “Spring Morning,” and “Storm Cloud,” all of which will be posted on the site as soon as possible. These recent works depict a broadening of the symbols to include new shapes and landscapes. I hope you enjoy them. Happy New Year!
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