PROCESS
Energy, Duality, Synergy & Emergence
Duality, yin & yang permeate every living cell. Life’s undertows bury us cruelly below the surface but if we survive the brutal we rise up a fiery Phoenix of new cells, creating layers of existence. As survivors we challenge the status quo still seeking Utopia on this spinning sphere held up magically in terrifying space spinning 1,000 mph
Opposing energies cannot create synergy yet somehow in this complex design of opposites we seek balance. It’s a constant tug of war. How many times has betrayal been masked in clever disguises? Even our own brains deceptively dance while our eyes miraculously flip upside-down images, a phenomenon we take for granted
We live in a topsy-turvy world, constantly using an imaginary plumb line to set things straight. And in the process of aging our views change as we’re not static beings but morphing energy appearing, disappearing and reappearing with new beliefs and ideas within the swirl of good & evil, love & hate
Artistic Process
Ad Reinhardt started to abandon color for minimalist black in 1945. Removing narratives of black is evil and white is good he avoided verses in the ancient text where the deceptive, beautiful angel posing as light is actually evil and light-filled Abba dwells in a dark cloud. These references reveal paradox which is complex & often unsettling and why I use ebony as the foundation for my allegorical self-portraits. Our earth spins 1,000 mph magically in terrifying space where dark energy & matter compose 95% of our universes which I revere
Reinhardt was influenced by the monotone traditions of China and used the term ‘negative’ as a positive to describe black’s aesthetic. I won my first art contest at 7 drawing large, floating Asian angels holding dark candles. My grandfather was a general stationed in China for 3 years during WWII. He brought back art, furniture & kimonos that were part of my mom’s décor, inspiring her own Asian purchases, which influenced my early artistic perceptions of beauty
Due to my mom’s 8-year battle with Alzheimer’s & dementia I was profoundly impacted by how we take our brains for granted and the mystical, unseen communication between the right & left hemispheres that we have no control over. My brain was damaged by carbon monoxide & gas poisoning, killing parts of the tissue, revealing black spots on the CT scan. So, after I paint layers of dense black on my scrolls or canvases, I stipple gold dots down the center to indicate the right & left halves of our stellar cranium, hidden in the darkness of our protective skull
The dim light of the moon allows us to rejuvenate & heal in positive darkness as sleep allows our cells to repair. Without dark we wouldn’t know light. Without nighttime we couldn’t view the luminous starry skies. Subtle mysteries & contrasts are within my work despite a Rorschach appearance as I paint left to right or right to left on either side of the gold dots mirroring my imagery. And since it’s freehand it’s never quite the same reflection, honoring the Divine unique creative source. Never exact repetition, not even our hidden trillion cells are the same
Each piece is painted halfway down then flipped and painted from the opposite end to the middle to honor the magical eye that flips all upside-down images right-side up for us. It’s also a pun on abstract art being hung upside down as my work is to be experienced both ways. My visuals are personal & universal rendering life as a swirl of yin & yang, survival in chaos, rising above life’s undertows, battling high anxiety, dyslexia, betrayal, sexual harassment, being uprooted & crucified, finding salvation in Love rendered in Hebrew, Arabic, Kanji & Oromo