AWAKENING

My art favors order and balance. The balance that pleases me is not drawn from symmetrically arranged forms, but from the equipoise a skinny kid and his larger friend achieve on a seesaw.

In that way, the characteristics of my work have a natural kinship with principles of ikebana, the traditional form of Japanese flower arranging. “Awakening,” like many Ikebana arrangements, is minimalist, quiet, asymetric and precise.

Background: As in ikebana, the process of arranging the images is as pleasing as the final result. It is deeply satisfying to situate squares, iconic but non-organic forms of order and stability, into emotionally colored and shaded spaces. The results are images with compositional composure, quiet energy, color harmony and a slightly mysterious narrative. Even when the images are still, they are neither static nor mute. “Awakening” is one of a number paintings based on this set of aesthetic principles.