La Verguensa

Painting and Meaning

I think painting is an act of courage. My goal is to create images which are true to a set of ideals I have gleaned through reflection and action.

I paint what cannot be photographed. Hence my tendency away from realism. Wonder in painting, lies in expression. I still like to capture understood forms and shapes. But I will often treat a figure like a composition or a shape upon which to experiment with pigment.

I stay true to painting. My goal is not to create a beautiful image to be admired but to discover something of myself and leave it on the paper. I do however think this process reveals beauty. One mystery, to me, is that beauty cannot be created through false intention. It is slowly revealed by  a desire to lay open one’s soul.

How can we reveal personal values with graphite and pigment?

Here is a list of values and an explanation of how I try to exhibit them.

Honesty: I don’t erase.I make marks and I live with them. I seek in the painting what I see in the world, a complex and beautiful dance of opposites. Light/Dark  Large/Small  Bright/Dull  Thin/Fat Life/Death  Transparent/Opaque  Good/Evil Grand/Minute. The list is endless.

Experimentation: I let the painting lead. I do not plan the painting but allow for fluid possibilities. I do not force a color scheme, or technique on the work.

Trust: I believe that the process will reveal something to me.  Beauty is discovered in the seeking, rather than the application of technique or theory. The most important thing is the seeking.

Perfection is a ruse: Perfection as some kind of objective quality is a ridiculous  concept. The act of painting is the point. Suspension of judgement is the key to freedom.