Early Art Statements
I make (what I call) art in order to have something to look at. Something interesting for my eyes. I suspend objects in front of planes in order to see them better.
The things I suspend are bits of creation, small parts of the phenomenological world, that seem to me to have a certain integrity of material and form. They don’t have any particular meaning that I know of, though I find each thing deeply meaningful. They are “special” objects only in the sense that Mr. Rogers finds all children special, as unique objects in the world in which we find ourselves. They seem to me vital elements of creation. I have had some of these things since childhood, and some I have found under special circumstances, while some were given to me and some I find more particularly beautiful than others. That’s only to be expected. But though I may have a special appreciation for some of these objects for personal reasons they are not to be considered of consequence. There is no hierarchy of value that I wish to assert. Each has only its own ontological value arising from the miracle of its own existence. I find it meaningful to spend time with such things, to look at them and participate in their presence.
Inasmuch as such experiences may be shared I am happy to share. We are all connected – to each other and to the universe at large – whether we take the time to dwell on that or not, whether we acknowledge it or not, but we are also profoundly alone. I make these works of art in order to have something to look at.
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What does a moment look like? How does silence feel? How does an object relate to its surroundings, and who am I in the surroundings? These are questions of looking.
++++++++++++
Drala: “Above the enemy.”
“The unconditioned wisdom and power of the world that are beyond any dualism.”
“Something living, something real is taking place in everything.”
“When we see things as they are they make sense to us: the way leaves move when they are blown by the wind, the way rocks get wet when there are snowflakes sitting on them.”
“Whatever is there, whatever you come across in your life, those are the dralas of reality.”
From Shambhala.
3 June 1995
My newest works are neither poems
nor paintings.
Only objects of the most/least existence.
A bit of stone
or stick
found or given,
never lifted or taken
held, not owned;
A bit of shell
or seed
hung suspended
like the stripes of Joseph’s coat;
A simple root,
a pinecone
placed where I can see it.
If God is not apparent in the kicked pebble
or a broken twig,
If God is not apparent in the mundane,
then why do you still search?
+++++++++++++
October 22, 1998:
My work is a response to two things: First, the visual violence of our culture, and Second, the press of people. The two are really one: Overstimulation. … My work is more and more about time and place apart.
February 14, 2001
With incarnation on my mind I see the carnal and the spiritual in harmony. …In my balanced rocks. What is more of the earth than a stone? What is more of the spirit than the lovely balance they find together?
++++++++++++++
I work with found objects the way John Cage worked with chance sound. But what Cage calls chance I call gift. As Cage used the I-Ching I use the gifts that come my way, the objects I find on the ground, in my path. The object is the same as for Cage, to free my work from myself., to unburden my expressions of ego, to express my not-self.
++++++++++
Space held open by gift and possibility. Suspended space, on the cusp of movement.
Poised – held – lightly. Unrestrained but limited.
+++++++++++
I am working with the same gesture as always
the gesture of attention
the gesture of listening
the gesture of silence
PRAYER-GESTURE
The gesture of movement held
The gesture of near symmetry
Low center of gravity
++++++++++++
I was born with the gift of slow eyes, tuned in to another pace of living than the one willed on us by today’s culture. Delacroix said that if you see someone falling from a fourth story window you should be able to draw him before he hits the ground. But Delacroix was a visual journalist who covered the wars. He chronicled what was happening in the active world. I am more interested in the inactive world. I would like to chronicle what doesn’t happen, like Morandi, who painted the way that dust and light settled on his shelves. Another world is encountered at this speed. No roving tigers or slashing scimitars, only the gentlest movement of the rotation of the spheres and the settling of motes in sunshine.
++++++++
Robert Lax, my favorite American poet, is seldom anthologized for much the same reason that my work does not do well in a group showing. It requires too much space.
The things I suspend are bits of creation, small parts of the phenomenological world, that seem to me to have a certain integrity of material and form. They don’t have any particular meaning that I know of, though I find each thing deeply meaningful. They are “special” objects only in the sense that Mr. Rogers finds all children special, as unique objects in the world in which we find ourselves. They seem to me vital elements of creation. I have had some of these things since childhood, and some I have found under special circumstances, while some were given to me and some I find more particularly beautiful than others. That’s only to be expected. But though I may have a special appreciation for some of these objects for personal reasons they are not to be considered of consequence. There is no hierarchy of value that I wish to assert. Each has only its own ontological value arising from the miracle of its own existence. I find it meaningful to spend time with such things, to look at them and participate in their presence.
Inasmuch as such experiences may be shared I am happy to share. We are all connected – to each other and to the universe at large – whether we take the time to dwell on that or not, whether we acknowledge it or not, but we are also profoundly alone. I make these works of art in order to have something to look at.
++++++++++++
What does a moment look like? How does silence feel? How does an object relate to its surroundings, and who am I in the surroundings? These are questions of looking.
++++++++++++
Drala: “Above the enemy.”
“The unconditioned wisdom and power of the world that are beyond any dualism.”
“Something living, something real is taking place in everything.”
“When we see things as they are they make sense to us: the way leaves move when they are blown by the wind, the way rocks get wet when there are snowflakes sitting on them.”
“Whatever is there, whatever you come across in your life, those are the dralas of reality.”
From Shambhala.
3 June 1995
My newest works are neither poems
nor paintings.
Only objects of the most/least existence.
A bit of stone
or stick
found or given,
never lifted or taken
held, not owned;
A bit of shell
or seed
hung suspended
like the stripes of Joseph’s coat;
A simple root,
a pinecone
placed where I can see it.
If God is not apparent in the kicked pebble
or a broken twig,
If God is not apparent in the mundane,
then why do you still search?
+++++++++++++
October 22, 1998:
My work is a response to two things: First, the visual violence of our culture, and Second, the press of people. The two are really one: Overstimulation. … My work is more and more about time and place apart.
February 14, 2001
With incarnation on my mind I see the carnal and the spiritual in harmony. …In my balanced rocks. What is more of the earth than a stone? What is more of the spirit than the lovely balance they find together?
++++++++++++++
I work with found objects the way John Cage worked with chance sound. But what Cage calls chance I call gift. As Cage used the I-Ching I use the gifts that come my way, the objects I find on the ground, in my path. The object is the same as for Cage, to free my work from myself., to unburden my expressions of ego, to express my not-self.
++++++++++
Space held open by gift and possibility. Suspended space, on the cusp of movement.
Poised – held – lightly. Unrestrained but limited.
+++++++++++
I am working with the same gesture as always
the gesture of attention
the gesture of listening
the gesture of silence
PRAYER-GESTURE
The gesture of movement held
The gesture of near symmetry
Low center of gravity
++++++++++++
I was born with the gift of slow eyes, tuned in to another pace of living than the one willed on us by today’s culture. Delacroix said that if you see someone falling from a fourth story window you should be able to draw him before he hits the ground. But Delacroix was a visual journalist who covered the wars. He chronicled what was happening in the active world. I am more interested in the inactive world. I would like to chronicle what doesn’t happen, like Morandi, who painted the way that dust and light settled on his shelves. Another world is encountered at this speed. No roving tigers or slashing scimitars, only the gentlest movement of the rotation of the spheres and the settling of motes in sunshine.
++++++++
Robert Lax, my favorite American poet, is seldom anthologized for much the same reason that my work does not do well in a group showing. It requires too much space.
