ARTIST STATEMENTS

Unless you’re one of those modernists, it’s common knowledge and common sense to agree on this simple basic truth: a good picture is worth a good thousand words. And as Rod so profoundly extrapolates, those 1000 words end up telling a story – “Every picture tells a story, don’t it?”

How to generate those thousand words? One solution is talking seeds – wouldn’t you know it, that’s the title of a picture in this show. For those who haven’t heard of them, here’s a definition:

Talking Seeds:

Jack, a dear friend, muse, and hyper-creative guy, turned me on to these seeds. In fact, he’s the only one I know that can get them.

In fact, in my painting “Talking Seeds” that’s Jack you see in the picture, with seeds coming out of his mouth, and an idea fruit hovering over his head. Instead of a light bulb. You might like to know that all of the pictures in the show are stories about Jack and his cohorts, and if you like a picture I can tell you its story. Just ask.

Inspiration and seeing possibilities are vital for both the creating of art and viewing it.

If for inspiration there are talking seeds, for seeing possibilities, and reading the future, there are tea leaves.

When I paint, I make a few marks, I see things in them, like reading tea leaves, and draw the story out. Likewise I daydream to paint. Vague shapes and marks act like a rorsach ink blot that lays out a story, and becomes a pattern for the picture. I am also very fond of geometrical equations based on the golden mean and the Fibonacci sequences. These visual equations inevitably suggest beautiful directions to take.

For art viewing, consider going to a gallery like going to the movies, furtively bring in snacks, maybe a drink, maybe a nail file or anything else to help while away a half hour. Find a picture you like, and ask the gallery for a nice, comfortable chair. Look at the picture then file your nails back and forth so you won’t be bored, or feel like this is a character building exercise.

If you’re passionate about something it helps, a lot. Passion and possibility-seeking go hand in hand.

Paintings are like tea leaves for the viewer. If you ponder long enough, things become clearer. You see things in tea leaves, they remind you of things, they portend possibilities. They tell you a story. You’ll start to notice things, and they will take on a life of their own.

‘What iI’s, ‘how bout’s, and ‘that reminds me’s, will coax out its meaning for you.
Who knows, it may give you a snapshot of the big picture.