This Human Life
It seems that no matter what we accomplish in our life, we seldom give ourselves the credit or praise we readily gift to others. It's been a while since I've posted here, my thinking being, 'Well, no one reads it anyway'. But thanks to the Blogger Stats, I see that over one hundred and fifty people read this blog last month, and while that's nothing by web standards, for me it's quite amazing. So thank you for reading, and if you'd like to drop me a note every now and then, it would be great to know something about you.
At a Loss for Words
The painting to the left is one I have posted before, and it is the only one that's been requested to be re-posted. It's also one of the paintings now on view in the Addison Street Windows Gallery on Addison St. in Berkeley, California. It will be on view until November first. You can stop by any time, the windows are also lit at night. They are located between Milvia and Shattuck, next to the new venue for the performance space, Freight and Salvage, and across from the Berkeley Repertory Theater. I'm giving a little sidewalk reception on Sunday, Sept. 30th. Stop by and say hi.
The title of the Addison Street Windows is Land and Language. The paintings on exhibit reflect the work I've been doing for about twenty years, following an impulse to mark and create paintings that move out of the body. People seem to think that artists act from certainty, always knowing what we're doing and why we're doing it. Maybe some artists work that way, but for me the studio is the only place where I can lean into my intuition and act without reason.
Human experience is a mystery. Art reflects and celebrates that mystery.
Did you ever stop to realize how much of life is invisible? The illnesses that come at us, the emotions we feel, the thoughts we have: they are all invisible forces working through our lives. In a way, the marks that come into many of my paintings are the language of invisible forces. The earth holds, as if protecting, languages that are just as mysterious and undecipherable in it. They are the elaborate patterns of expression devised by humans before us, and they are literally part of the terrain of our world.
I hope my paintings and these thoughts are catalysts for your thoughts and your work. And again, thanks for reading.