Why do some trees look like an old man, and others like an animal or a dancer.
Expressive objects often make us feel more than think … no words needed.
The Source Points
acrylic on board
1991
The source of our spirit leads us.
Divining this source is to nurture our higher being.
Oh, to be aligned with the inner seed that built us.
This week:
I received a Certificate of Honour:
Astitvam Art Awards 2022
for my contribution to Spiritual Art.
I would like to thank Sandeep and Navneet
for championing Spiritual Art.
We are not grains of sand, but cells in a connected whole.
What is more a part of you,
your left arm or the air around you?
You can live without your left arm.
After college, I decided to dedicate my life to being an artist.
To discover my personal style, I drew hundreds of small drawing studies in the center of the page to free the edges.
More than 10,000’s hours clocked just drawing, it gave me a solid foundation.
Wayvox
(abstract syllables)
ballpoint pen
1986
Mater
ballpoint pen
1987
(at the risk of explaining a joke…
At first glance it looks like I misspelled ‘matter.’
’Mater’ means ‘mother,’ birthing matter and what matters)
Zygotes:
I began with the simplest of forms on 8.5” x 11” pages …100's of drawings… These are two examples.
The difficulty was resisting the urge to turn the abstraction into something recognizable, like eyes, faces, etc.
I tried to be a conduit for the energy and allow space to exert itself as forms emerged.
Some titles were abstract syllables, others concepts.
Security vs. Freedom
watercolor pencil
1988
Spiritual Materialism
pencil
1988
Vignettes:
As the forms became more complex, the subjects became more philosophical.
Still on 8.5”x11” paper, my intention was to allow the work to draw itself.
Guided by inner direction, my dream-maker, I wanted to reflect deeply personal, universal themes.
Rather than abstracting a still life, figure, or landscape,
I wanted to find subject matter in abstraction, allowing conceptual worlds to open.
Making a Secret
pencil on 8.5”x11” paper
1989
Holy War
pencil on 8.5”x11” paper
1989
Full drawings began filling the page…
As this drawing style developed, I began doodling one-line drawings. These were rarely worth saving, but every once in a while a well-formed example survived … an early Labyrinth:
Introspection
oil line drawing
5.5“x6.5” (3”x3” image)
New Year’s 1987
I knew I was an artist in my teens, so I majored in Psychology to understand the inner workings of the mind … and to learn how to not go crazy. Jungian Psychology, Art Therapy, Joseph Campbell’s Mythology, Existentialism, Clinical Philosophy, & Comparative/Eastern Religion filled my heart & mind with concepts to reflect my inner life. Favorite artists were Klee, Gorky drawings, Kupka, Escher & Rbt. Williams.
Through college, I was a night watchman for Apple Computer with time to draw, take classes, read heady books, and be an artist - not just painting but performance & installation art. My serious dedication to being an Artist began then with an intention to create a style of abstraction that was as detailed as realism. Most abstraction was quickly drawn and seemed to me unfinished, so I began a style of rhythmic sketching that felt musical with gestural precision.
I was not an art monk.
I also did some performance art, some installations and painted larger works:
Mild mannered Security Guard by night, 1986
Lines of acrylic paint rhythmically applied - series of 13 works. 1988
9’x7’ oil painting, Those Who Enter Win, 1990, Private collection, CA
Performance/Installation artist by Day, 1987
“One Night Two Artists Got Naked and Painted”
Celebrating a summer of painting with Steve Storz, 1985
Photoshoot by Birgit Sandoval 1987
And as spiritual as my search was, my life was mighty raucous, however ‘clean’ …for the most part…
Spiritual art is a search for the divinity inside,
the seed that built us,
and the light that gives us life.
Art is a window into what makes us human.