Artist Statement
The current series of paintings, Unseen Universe, was begun in 2004, and grew directly from a preceding series, Zen/Dot/Energy. In the latter group, dots, circles, and chakras, the seven energy centers of the human body in the ancient Indian tradition, create fields of pulsating visual excitation. In the newer work, the dots remain, but are now part of paintings that combine organic cells and plant forms with abstract landscapes, mandalas, and other symbols of cosmic unity.
While the Zen/Dot/Energy paintings were dominated by black, white, and earth tones, the Unseen Universe glows with vivid green, turquoise, purple, yellow, and red. In the newer work, there is a strong impulse to join the microcosmic, life at the cellular level, with the macrocosmic, the universe in its entirety. These paintings begin as studies in the form of collages, deliberately juxtaposing found photographs, shifting the scale and identity of the images. But what begins as a controlled process yields unexpected, unconscious results. A painting may take from a week to a number of months to finish.
These paintings have their sources in the artist’s life experiences, including her connection to the art of ancient cultures, and her personal path of spiritual self-discovery. It is the artist’s belief that while we mostly live in our conscious thoughts, we remain largely unaware of the depths of the unconscious and the spiritual dimension of our own being. The paintings are a way to access a sense of that deeper level of our inner selves.
In the Zen/Dot/Energy paintings, the chakras reveal a unity between human existence and the structure of the universe. The sacred circles of the mandalas are symbolic image of universal wholeness realized in meditation. In the Unseen Universe, nature is seen as the ultimate mandala, the organic truth that lies all around us. And in this vision, each one of us is seen as an integral and essential part of the world.
These new paintings are a way of taking the viewer to an inner reality using the artist’s personal visual language. This work is an invitation for the viewer to continue their own personal journey to their own unseen worlds.
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