line series
Looking at Mondrian’s paintings of lines intersecting one another
at 90-degree angles, I see myself express through a similar visual
language - lines, spaces, and colors. Yet his work seemed to be
so rigid and distant that I once dismissed any possibilities of
a connection between us as painters. But I was wrong. From his
writings in the early 1900’s, I’ve learned about our shared belief
in abstract painting: it allows experiences in physical time and
space to be distilled and perceived as the embodiment of an essence.
Although we both believe in stripping away the physical, the particular,
to reflect life in its essence, I am not an idealist. Mondrian
and others in Peter Blum’s anthology, In Quest of the Absolute,
stated their belief in a realm of pure spirit freed from all conflict.
I have yet to witness that ideology realized. To me, the concept
of karmic relation in Buddhism makes sense. Anything is the effect
of everything.
Anything is the effect of everything around. Lines, spaces, and
colors. Individuals, events, and emotions. Together they represent
time and space - time and space in a non-linear fashion as the
karmic effects in David Lynch’s movie Mulholland Drive. Often,
these relations and effects are present in life yet very subtle
to perceive. I hope to communicate the wonder and tension created
by the subtleties of our changes in perception. In my paintings,
these perceived changes are expressed through relationships of
colors and compositions of lines and planes. My lines are straight
until they encounter the edges of the canvas. A dark umber green
loses its identity when a brilliant warm red meanders through
the field. In a sea of green I search out a blue sky. Beneath
the mist of dreams I discover realities.
