Iconoclaste- Blog post for A Generous Kingdom 2024 - Verum Ultimum Gallery

“Iconoclaste” Blog post with  A Generous Kingdom 2023

I paint to bring a lantern temporarily to the darkest of spaces.
Years ago, I was meditating, and I asked myself; where do I collect the muse for my paintings from?  I came upon, in my mind's eye, this large underground body of water, bottomless and boundaryless, the dark still waters stretching as far as I could see.  I leaned over the edge to look into the depths and saw a massive serpentine shape swimming languidly, its pale skin catching the light when it came nearer to the surface.  I never saw its face or tail, just the main part of its body moving and disappearing in that vast dark space.  Its movements stirred the water just enough that two droplets of water landed on my right forearm. 

I left that place, carefully balancing these water droplets on my skin,  up into the light, to further interpret them in the light of day. 

I have often thought back to that, and I realize I am drawn to the exploration of the unknown, of the unsaid, of the unspoken, or unrealized, and those hints of our shadows moving separately from ourselves from the corner of the eye.   Most of our human experience is lived and experienced under the sun, in our waking worlds. I don't wish to permanently illuminate these dark spaces and change their terrain, but to understand them, and then leave them respectfully as they wished to be, in the soothing darkness again.  I then move on to other parts of those subterranean caves, my lantern casting shadows as I explore and paint some more.