SWAB Barcelona Contemporary Art Fair
Artist Statement
I make paintings based on my experiences with Buddhist meditation and Shamanism from various cultures. The paintings are designed to function as tools for meditation and by extension aids in healing. The manipulation of brush strokes, patterns, and pigments that change in appearance depending on the light environment suggest the idea that everything is energy, everything is alive, and everything is interconnected. Each of my paintings is conceived as a mindfulness practice or moving meditation. While I am painting, I infuse the work with Reiki energy, which is a form of shamanic energy healing used by many cultures for centuries. I sometimes use ceremony as a performance-based extension of the paintings as a way to contextualize some of the cultural references that inform the work. The ceremony is also a healing modality that creates a sense of connection among the audience members and promotes the idea of harmonizing with one’s environment-- further bringing people into a somatic experience of the paintings.
Project Statement
For this set of painting (Palm Images), I decided to make a suite of 7 paintings based on colors commonly associated with the seven chakras. In the selection sent to SWAB with AWOL, the root (red) and sacral chakra (orange) paintings are designed to function as tools for healing and meditation. The colors, brush strokes, and interference pigments that are only fully visible at certain angles reference various New Age concepts: everything is energy, color has the power to transform your energy and with that your mental-emotional states, plants and plant shapes have the power to heal you and increase rates of healing both physically and emotionally. At the same time the images are meant to invoke and signify the “myth of California”, the land of promise, and Los Angeles the capital of the New Age Movement. In addition to the two Palm Paintings, I have also included three untitled (wave) paintings that function as studio studies for me to work with different color and brush stroke combinations. These are a separate but related studio practice that I have maintained for decades which informs my color choices and the paint facture in my representational work.
I make paintings based on my experiences with Buddhist meditation and Shamanism from various cultures. The paintings are designed to function as tools for meditation and by extension aids in healing. The manipulation of brush strokes, patterns, and pigments that change in appearance depending on the light environment suggest the idea that everything is energy, everything is alive, and everything is interconnected. Each of my paintings is conceived as a mindfulness practice or moving meditation. While I am painting, I infuse the work with Reiki energy, which is a form of shamanic energy healing used by many cultures for centuries. I sometimes use ceremony as a performance-based extension of the paintings as a way to contextualize some of the cultural references that inform the work. The ceremony is also a healing modality that creates a sense of connection among the audience members and promotes the idea of harmonizing with one’s environment-- further bringing people into a somatic experience of the paintings.
Project Statement
For this set of painting (Palm Images), I decided to make a suite of 7 paintings based on colors commonly associated with the seven chakras. In the selection sent to SWAB with AWOL, the root (red) and sacral chakra (orange) paintings are designed to function as tools for healing and meditation. The colors, brush strokes, and interference pigments that are only fully visible at certain angles reference various New Age concepts: everything is energy, color has the power to transform your energy and with that your mental-emotional states, plants and plant shapes have the power to heal you and increase rates of healing both physically and emotionally. At the same time the images are meant to invoke and signify the “myth of California”, the land of promise, and Los Angeles the capital of the New Age Movement. In addition to the two Palm Paintings, I have also included three untitled (wave) paintings that function as studio studies for me to work with different color and brush stroke combinations. These are a separate but related studio practice that I have maintained for decades which informs my color choices and the paint facture in my representational work.