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[Epigraph]
"...And yet, there is LOVE in the world."
~ CS Lewis "That Hideous Strength"
Yes,
finally,
the
impatiently
awaited
arrival
of
Spring
to
our
northern
parts!
With
it
comes
The
Earth
Day
and
the
many
art
exhibitions
that
sing
the
landscape,
that
cradle
the
environment
in
a
more
caring
embrace.
Our
climate
will
never
be
the
same,
not
in
our
lifetime
--
or
in
our
children's
children
--
well
beyond
our
usual
endurance
of
change,
beyond
the
habitual
sullen
acceptance,
with
our
environment
actively
reshaping
all
that
is
quotidian.
Will
our
own
attitudes
change
in
time,
ask
the
artists,
ever
attuned
to
our
Zeitgeist,
ever
slightly
ahead
of
the
present.
Meanwhile
a
couple
of
my
own
paintings
this
spring
will
take
part
in
this
rite
of
renewal.
They
will
be
exhibited
in
the
two
shows
sponsored
by
our
local
environmental
artists'
group
(S.H.E.
=
Shared
Habitat
Earth).
"Perelandra"
is
one
of
3
panels
of
the
same
size,
painted
around
2017.
In
my
initial
design,
they
were
supposed
to
comprise
a
single
3-part
painting.
But
that
was
not
to
be;
each
went
its
own
way,
one
even
turning
90
degrees
to
horizontal
and
seemingly
visually
expanding
ever
further,
becoming
one
of
my
favorites.
As
for
"Perelandra"
itself,
you
may
recognize
its
borrowed
title
--
from
a
superb
novel
by
CS
Lewis,
the
middle
part
of
his
"sci-fi"
trilogy,
symbolic
and
redolent
with
wild,
nearly
unrestrained
beauty...
.
So perhaps it is with this painting, in and out of this world, reaching for something rarely seen, more felt: the sound, the vibration beneath the simple appearance of things. Undoubtedly all of the experience of being an abstract colorist helps -- to look for and find such places in oneself and in the world before us -- the world now fraught with more than ordinary dangers, the world unfolding itself in dew before our eyes every Spring, with yet another promise of forgiveness, another gesture of head-spinning, drunken celebration.
"Perelandra", 40 x 30 in. (102 x 76 cm),
Oil stick, acrylic & lacquer on wood panel, 2017
In paintings, the underlying patterns of Nature are often revealed in the
Golden Section, in the sacred ratios, in the poignant pregnant colors of the
earth. My second painting being exhibited this spring is more about such
rhythms, rising as pattern from deeper reservoirs of cultural inspiration...
perhaps its vibe is akin to the ballet music of Stravinsky (so long as we
mention Spring), as interpreted by the choreographer Pina Bausch. "The
Impermanence Spiral" made its debut a year ago in a NYC art gallery, and
will now be seen in Boston for the first time.
"The Impermanence Spiral", 36 x 36 in. (91 x 91 cm),
Oil stick & acrylic on wood panel, 2020
Perhaps it is this Spring that shall awaken us all to the beautiful, fraught
and eye opening pattern of our destinies.
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