Wednesday, July 30, 2014

On the Bracken Line work to be shown in Costa Rica during August

While in residence giving workshops in Figure studies and a Master's class at the EMAI, the Santa Ana School of the Integrated Arts, I will be showing work from the Along the Bracken Line series shown in the posts below.  Artist Statement (English and Spanish versions):

Along the Bracken Line

This series of painting was inspired by the waters of Siletz Bay along the Oregon coast.  More specifically, it was inspired by the ebb and flow of salt water from the ocean and fresh river water as they ebb and flow transparently; as they mix in layers with subtle transitions in hue and intensity. Sometimes, the ever moving fringe between the waters appears as a meandering texture on the surface of the bay, known as a bracken line.  


The currents and layers of salt water and fresh water go one direction and yet the waves go in another, leading me to regard the visual complexity of this natural phenomenon as metaphor, as an analog of consciousness itself, of the flow of the mind with the subtlety suggested by nature itself; how states of consciousness and memory overlap and are sometimes transparent, sometimes opaque, often intersecting and sometimes entirely independent; how they overlap and co-exist, shift and merge, separate, how the mind coalesces and connects what it perceives to be immutable forms just before they again dissolve without a trace; my brush lightly touching, sometimes not touching at all as I wave it in motions above the surface.  Tentative assertions, more found than posited are yielded in transparent flux.  The mind not capturing, per se, not asserting but rather glimpsing what is held and released, like a fish, delicate and transient qualities that converge, for me, the physical and metaphysical worlds.



Aguas Salobres; confluencias

Esta serie de pinturas fueron inspiradas por las aguas de la Bahía de Siletz a lo largo de la costa de Oregon. Más específicamente, se inspiró en el flujo y reflujo del agua salada del mar y el agua dulce de los ríos que desembocan en forma rítmica ondulante, ya que sube y baja de manera transparente y mezcla en capas con sutiles diferencias en el color y densidad. A veces la franja siempre en movimiento entre las aguas aparece como un serpenteo de texturas en la superficie de la bahía, conocida como una línea salobre. 

A veces, las corrientes y las capas de agua salada y agua dulce van en varias direcciones, las olas van en otras.  Me conduce a considerar la complejidad visual y física de este fenómeno natural como metáfora, como un análogo de la conciencia misma, de los movimientos de la mente con la sutileza sugerida por la propia naturaleza, como los estados de la conciencia y la memoria se superponen y son a veces transparentes, a veces opacas, a veces se cruzan, a veces, aparentemente en forma independiente si no es ajeno el uno del otro; la forma en que se superponen y coexisten, cómo cambian y se fusionan, aparte, cómo la mente se une y conecta a lo que percibe como formas inmutables justo antes de que de nuevo se disuelvan sin dejar rastros; mi pincel tocando suavemente la superficie; arrastrando la pintura, sometiendo un pasaje mientras ilumina otra; algo hecho de varios naderías, ya en proceso, con lo que parecen afirmaciones como tentativas; cedido en flujo transparente. La mente no captura en si misma sino más bien que vislumbra y libera e inmediatamente su transitoria belleza, la pintura es una mera transcripción visual de lo inefable.      








Thursday, July 24, 2014

Including a couple more pieces from last year in the Bracken Line series

Perhaps it has to do with the palette, perhaps the fluidity, but en even though these pieces are from last year they seem to fit well into the Bracken Line series.

Manganese Blue/Forest Light, acrylic on canvas with charcoal,
2013, 42" x 60"
Zinacantán, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 40" x 46"

Saturday, July 19, 2014

On the Bracken Line (third set) inspired by Siletz Bay, Oregon

LINK to collaborative music video with Ruben Mills: Non-Duality of Sight and Sound



I am in the midst of painting a rather large series of work inspired by the Siletz Bay.  The following eight are small 11" x 14" canvases done at Salishan, Oregon during the past week.  There is a bracken line, the constantly moving boundary between ocean salt water and Siletz River fresh water, in front of our cabin on the bay.  It is often visible as it forms, slides along outside our window, then recedes and grows placid or turbulent, waves on ripples, currents going one way, wind waves the other; brackish waters.  

I am not illustrating, per se, and so in what sense is this natural ebb and flow inspirational?  On a formal level it is about layers and counterflow.  That is enough I suppose but I do think about all of this metaphorically, perhaps more specifically metaphysically: how states of consciousness and memory overlap and are sometimes transparent, often not; how they overlap and co-exist, how they shift and merge, separate and exist at times independent, other times inter-dependent of one another; how the mind coalesces and connects what it perceives to be forms from the soup of experience even as it dissolves.  Visual poetics that defy naming; flux and swell and illumination, obfuscation and elucidation, my brush tracing in process what appear as assertions ,more found than posited.