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Ancient Traditions
Modern Expression
"Ancient Memories, Modern Expressions" is my most recent series of paintings. Inspired by ancient iconography from an encyclopedic range of cultures and civilizations, I examine then abstract these symbols. In so doing, I continue my exploration of visual meaning and transformation vis-a-vis the juxtaposition of new and unexpected relationships: the dominant and ongoing themes of my work.
The series began as a literal gift. A scientist, one who works in a very esoteric field, presented me with ancient hieroglyphs and other schematics. Rather than providing any kind of explanation, he left it entirely up to me to interpret them. Although aware the images carried cultural, religious or economic significance, I addressed them denuded of imbued meaning, and used them instead as pictorial inspiration and as a starting point for abstraction. The paintings themselves I commenced with the selection and enlargement of several of these ancient drawings, followed by their transfer to canvas.
This, in turn, initiated a process through which I sought not to reflect an external reality, but to chart the internal.While the resulting works often retain figurative elements, they remain fundamentally abstract-reflecting my abiding interest in color and light and their refraction, as well as in the employment of small grids to form structure.
Additionally, they encompass rediscovered areas of personal inquiry, particularly Jungian archetypes, and novel horizons of enthusiasm, such as celestial snapshots taken by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). In addition to being some of the most beautiful pictures I've ever seen, these images also reference the continuum between microcosm and macrocosm, and remind me that form regardless of size relies on the same universal building blocks and immutable physical laws. Which leads me full circle.
Is the continuum of Time any different, the connection between ancient, even subconscious memory and its modern manifestation in my paintings? To me, both in concept and in meaning, they express very much the same truth.