|
|
 |
Artist Statement
The Shakti Series
Returning from a trip to Tibet, Nepal, and southern India in 1996, I was seized with a passion to paint new images. To some extent my paintings have always been about the reality behind the veil – the painting behind the picture. Now, instead of painting the idea of light and energy, I want to capture the experience of light and energy.
Concurrent with working on the first painting in this series, Stop/Go, I was reading Karma Cola by Gita Mehta, and was electrified by the word shakti. I felt certain that this described my new work. I knew shakti to be Sanskrit for divine force or energy, but that was about all. Later as I began to research this, the plot thickened deliciously. Shaktism is a renegade offshoot of Hinduism, and the word shakti epitomizes the fertile, feminine force, the Divine Mother, and the archetypal goddess.
So, the shakti paintings began as a physical or sensate expression of a metaphorical set of beliefs, original creation as formless light. The new works evolved into the emotional energy driving this astonishing and always mysterious process.
That force is what we come from, and it is what brings us to our knees. It is love.
The Lila Series
My grid work began as small experimental studies and evolved into a body of work that has occupied me, on and off, for the last 14 years. The word lila is Sanskrit from the Hindu tradition. It describes the divine process of rhythmic dynamic play – the creative force behind the ever-changing illusion of this world of matter.
The formal issues that interest me are color, light and pattern. In many ways my large paintings are informed by these small works. But in these I am more experimental. I’m out for a good time. I want to spontaneously capture the joyous possibilities of life. One manifestation of this is the expanded use of materials. The older work was paint and/or oil pastel. The new work includes those plus encaustic, broken glass, printmaking, collage, text pieces, sewn paper, popsicle sticks, whatever. I am interested in the relationship of one to another. These pieces have an almost tribal beat, somewhat raucous, and their song is of the wild.
|
