Vault

I remember walking through cathedrals and basilicas in Europe and looking up - as a student of architecture I was meant to be analyzing the structure of the vault - the loads - the force - the gravity

the span of mass wants only to be grounded - to be transferred as a force to the mass of the wall - which in turn would buttress it and bring it down to the earth - absorbing it at the source

but what I was doing instead was looking at light - trying to imagine the volume contained in the vault as a space in my own body - bringing in light and redefining form through an expanding force - breath, let's call it

in the courtyards, small gardens and side chapels I would begin to breath again - perceiving openings through my lungs and fingertips - I left behind the weight of the vault to be grounded on it's own terms - taking with me a sightless volume - resisting gravity and waiting to be exhaled into a city with no ceiling

Envy and Horizon

the grasses seem to crane their blades to glimpse what is beyond the edge - as the light bounces over boundary lines at the ends of the day announcing old beginnings or new endings

the moon of course is simply oblivious and in the darkness the tide brings in it's catch - releases it to be filtered among the grasses - sifting and  considering their fortune

our fears wade out through the hermit crabs looking for a stay from our anxious aversions - filtering between toes the breath of foundation - plumb lines for a codex - a stabilizing survey

satiating our need for orientation we establish topography and coordinates - but we are pulled like a sidelong gravity to a place that is all edge - the endless craving of envy and horizon

Blue Tide

the conversation persists as long as there is atmosphere

reflecting above and below - the "pale blue dot" continues to journey in gravity’s anchor

small passengers cling to it's stories with clumsy hearts - good intent - but little sense for scale or topography

in the end we might wade to a moored craft - hoping it knows the way beyond the horizon -

between vessel and passage - we cast our fates onto the blue tide

The Three Poisons

craving relief from things as they are - desiring change or acceptance - how much is enough

a slight aversion to things not sweet - an avoidance - passing on the forbidden fruit

what delusions have we summoned - this is not that space - flat but ripe

Layer Mapping

like unearthing a drawing you had forgotten -

an aborted effort bubbles to the surface of your memory

you see the map embedded in layers of lines - pushing at the surface to bend it

we crave entry to the real thing - but we settle for our own invention and we can't avert our eyes

Acceptance and Investigation

the tides are inevitable - emptying  and filling estuaries

fog "burns off" exposing the dock - feeling its way into the river

probing for a foothold - a footing or anchoring

adapted for the ebb and flow - patient for the turn

"...wake without question" - W.S. Merwin

planes of granite

slowly claimed by the relentless softness of the sea

rigidity succumb to supple  embrace

while the continents continue their drift

Tether and Contour

it's a question we ask

what are the tethers that contour intention and action

are they taut, anchored in feeling - are they loose, adrift in thought

Light Engagement

to hold the thought objectively as it’s presented

knowing the glow of shadow is another layer - projection

pulling along in drift - scraping bottom

not anchored - barely held

To Draw From

there's a small presence we are placed in

suspicious of the self - waiting between interior and exterior

a stilled life or a scaped land - "drawn from" abstracted wells of memory

Table Topography

Winter light brief and long

A vessel gathers then casts

Tabletop maps the flattened kitchen

"Memory and Reflection" Landscape Detail

late August low tide

taking this with us, the bottom

pushes up, projects, receives, reflects

"Essential Thereness" Still Life Detail

a sense of material in small objects - specimen and collect - set about like dancing - Diebenkorn called it "essential thereness" - simply there to be considered acknowledged - they occupy space in our home

there in our heads and hearts - we move through the kitchen in afternoon winter light - voices of nervous teenagers in the living room - what pieces will be there to hold them as they begin the drift of adulthood

coming into themselves, un-anchoring from a sandy bottom with no real purchase - what object holds a memory to comfort them - texture becoming scent, reflection flavor - pulling their gaze around again to the warm kitchen

the words seeing surfaces as light lands, reflects, leaving striped table cloth, coffee cup, reading glasses, scissor, sketchbook wire binding, blue bowl, black placemat, orange skin and a jar of coffee beans

Conversation and Line

an intricate push and pull - uncovering a kind of coda

revealing a truce at the meeting of two systems

mud flat - the thin film of ocean stretching with curiosity over the broad foot of the continent - exploring probing creating a singular system dependent on two

we are drawn to it

the ocean reminds us our tether is tenuous - we can exist at the edge because the land and sea have agreed to meet overlap hear the voice of the other

it seems no coincidence the beauty of the shore is universal to us at this moment of eternal conversation

4th Cliff - Humarock

Continuing on the theme of light and topography where the water meets the land... and the conversation at the "turning of the line".

"Waiting on the Turn" new oil on canvas

Inspired by comments from gallery owners where I show my paintings, I've been working with  narrower color palettes and subtler light patterns lately. 

Scenes from an American parade.  Needham, MA - the heartland.

Morning Sketches - Ink, pencil and China marker on paper.