PAINTING: A PHILOSOPHY OF DISCOVERY

It is a basic tenant of Action Painting that honest work is only done in the moment, an organic, spontaneous response to the perceived trajectory of the painting. From an open purposeless stance the painting, or “blank” canvas says something to my consciousness. I make no distinction between it and me. It can cause a discomfort in my body, one that I may want to relieve. I can relieve the discomfort by playing any of several thousand justification or avoidance techniques, or I can follow that discomfort to a place where an action is suggested—or demanded. Suddenly “orange” simply must be and it is my job to fulfill that demand. It’s really very simple—it simply “needs” it to be itself.

It’s a method by which I continue to sense my completion and my complete connection to everything in the world—not just at a given moment in time but in a moment that has no time. Nothing can be added or taken away - from me - or it.

When that work is done what I have done is given form to a moment. By giving it form it is outside of time, it is timeless.

When the work is viewed, the viewer goes through a similar process. The only extension of a moment is depth of experience. The only extension to experience is depth of consciousness.

To experience the fullest impact, they must have no intention; suspend any judgment or “holding” and go completely and willingly into something that is, in a sense, not them. Listening to a Mozart they must become the “horn.” Just as, when in a contemplative mode, the Universe slips into a grain of sand, so here a great “fullness” is experienced in the “emptiness” that is at the juncture of a figure and its ground. Or, to return to my past example, the “Orange “ is everything. If it is for you as well, then, as limited as I am, I am enough.