Paintings

“The most beautiful thing in the world is the mysterious; it is the source of all art and science.” Einstein

Intuitive Art Making

"The Artist at the Pool of Inspiration" - Oil

While all creativity is a dance between the complementary functions of the brain-- logical, rational, linear, critical thinking and imaginative, associative, holistic, intuition-- and all my work is intentional to the degree that I wish to stimulate thought and uplift the spirit through a sense of wonder and beauty-- my art tends to fall naturally into two categories: intentional and intuitive.

Intentional works are those that begin with the intent to explore and communicate a specific theme or concept like law of attraction, the creative cycle, or duality. My Circles of Light prismacolor drawings and probably half of my collage and assemblage fall into this category of consciously guiding the symbolic content through a nearly continuous inner dialogue in which concepts, structure, measurement, and purpose play an active role in the artistic process.

Intuitive art, on the other hand, begins with an urge to express a feeling for which I have no words-- yet. It is an open-ended invitation to Great Mystery, my inner being, subconscious, soul, muse, daemon, angels, guides or God--whatever language you prefer to describe the numinous source from which creativity flows-- to dance, to play. Samuel Butler said that our minds want clothes as much as our bodies, explaining perhaps my compulsion to make art, to express myself in particular colors, shapes, patterns and metaphors which provide, in essence, a snapshot of my current psychological landscape. My myndscape.

My job as an intuitive artist, I’ve learned, is to shut up and listen, turn off the chatter of my critical reasoning mind and intuit, feel the next line, allow the next color or image to appear in my mind's eye, rather than impose my preconceptions of what the finished product should be. Creating visionary art demands trust in the hidden turnings of the creative process itself and rewards me with a glimpse of something that did not exist before I opened the threshold between the realms of imagination and matter. All I can really take credit for is being a willing vessel for this art, being patient enough to solve technical problems while filling in details as inspiration bestows its mysterious gifts in a series of potent, yet ephemeral glimpses of rich inner worlds.