I've arrived back at the beginning. My first paintings were representational: images of my surrounding urban environment. As they progressed, they became simplified, using only the essential elements to tell the story. Color, texture, pattern and shape became as important as the original image - the language as meaningful as the message. With that approach I could use these abstracted elements to express abstract ideas - concepts of time, space, motion and perception. This will keep me busy for awhile. The thing is, once you start to shift your perspective, you look at everything differently - clouds, mountains, city streets. And for an artist, there's a compulsion to make an image of it. So I'm once more making paintings of my physical environment - landscapes. I'm using much of the same language I developed with the Abstracts - simple shapes, patterns and textures, just derived from physical sources rather than conceptual ones. And I have no doubt the Landscape paintings will affect the Abstracts in profound ways as well. Maybe eventually they'll meld into one experience, one expression. Splaces?
