Iconography of Principle Desire
Statement:
This work consists of narrative mixed media constructions, large scale narrative paintings, and encaustic woodcut prints. Philosophically I seek to comment on principle desire. I view this as a seemingly common longing for such things as place, meaning, and love. I use the iconography of various images and objects to represent these themes metaphorically. For instance, the apple (traced back to ancient story telling) is used playfully as an iconic symbol of desire. Titles are written as clues to help orient each piece. The tone can be sardonic or sincere depending upon the viewer's relationship to the so-called "Romantic Paradigm." The ambiguity is deliberate.Globally, the subject of desire is vast. An inescapable predicament of humankind is involved in the perpetual, transient cycle of having and not having. Buddhists cite desire as the cause of suffering, and avoid attachment to earthly things. In contrast, Westerners seek out desire-fulfillment by attempting to accomplish a sequential list of goals that are often grounded in acquisition. In each case--conditioning, traditions and social paradigms set the tone and pace of desire.
I seek out and explore the sensuous and tactile qualities of matter. There is an attempt to manifest heart to hand by way of gesture and material. Through this action, the art object becomes a meditation on the principles of desire in its various guises, and materializations. My ultimate goal is to acknowledge interdependence between all things past and present, and to elaborate on an interconnection between the self, the world and the philosophical search for meaning.
The process of uniting the external with the internal [by the action of making art,] slowly reduces the notion that the self is different from the world, and that the world is different from the self. --Patanjali I.41