Organic Abstraction
I’ve been taking a break from my bimonthly blog. To me painting comes easy but words are hard. Then I realized again, we do not grow when things are easy.
I’ve been mainly focused on figurative work for over 20 years, but I regularly dabbed in abstraction as a form of meditation and release. Embracing the ancient form of mark making without an attachment to the outcome. I never considered showing these works and recognized them as subpar.
In 2017, I had the privilege of walking the living tree root bridges in the jungles of Meghalaya, India that were created to connect little rural villages. I also spent time at the Angkor Wat complex in Cambodia observing how nature reclaimed the man-made structures and I contemplated how a nation recovered from the devastation of the Khmer Rouge rule.
2020 as political tensions in the US peaked while the Covid pandemic soared, representational work seemed unequipped to express my troubled state of mind. I gave way to impulsion and my organic abstract series took root. Initially expressionistic and impulsive as I consumed unhealthy levels of media, trying to find meaning in it all. I had little attachment to the outcome but found relief in the process of creating. Mostly on paper and often exploring abstraction in ways I never have before. The pieces were small and on paper, like the pages of a journal, and I was able to capture the mood of one moment before it shifted.
In time, my mind went back to my experiences in Asia and my admiration for nature’s ability to connect and heal. I found Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching and my abstract series evolved. I find the emotional rawness of these works both healing and addictive, while the freedom to explore without the limits of likeness exhilarating.
Although all my abstract works are organic, recently when I worked on my exhibit at The Other Art Fair, Chicago, they naturally divided into subcategories. My organic series inspired by driftwood, my Tao series created while listening to the Tao Te Ching, Vitae series celebrates life, growth and energy and the original experimental 6x6” paper series -where it all began.
Organic Abstract exhibition April 2022 @ The Other Art Fair, Chicago, IL.