Witness

A moment of blinding realization. Sitting on the water's edge, the sky was grey and the tides low. It was maybe 3 degrees out and I sat huddled on a big boulder. Over the valley I could see the sun spreading slowly as the clouds behind me parted. When the light reached and warmed me, I turned behind to see the brilliant sun breaking through the heavy purple clouds. Up above me, flying over me and over the valley was an eagle. A real, live eagle. In that moment it came to me. All this life, all of human consciousness - we are witnesses. 


Does a tree fall in the woods if no one's there to hear it? Of course it does. We put value however on the witnessed account. Our eyes, our senses, our cognizance - what we do best is tell stories. As an artist, I am a medium through which my cumulative life experiences are sorted, weighed and re-stated through pigment and form. 


So that eagle could fly over that valley every day as might be the case, but its significance to you who read this and I who experienced it, is framed by my single afternoon's reflection. That changes things. We can be such self important animals. I've found that life is richer and more worthwhile when I understand myself as part of a large, moving tapestry of creative experience. My eyes and my hands are no more significant than any other, but what is unique to me is my narrative, that is, my position in the tapestry - my literal point of view. 


My senses are the windows through which all the world around me is contextualized. So as people, we are many points of reference and many re-imaginations of the same earth and our space within it. 

Fading Light

Here is the piece that I wrote about yesterday. I've decided to call it Fading Light. My final exam for A-level Art was to paint something under the title Fading Light. I had decided then to paint a reclining nude in a half dark room. My friends graciously agreed to pose for it but unfortunately it was not one of my better pieces. This painting I guess comes many years too late but when I thought about what to call this one, Fading Light was what popped into my mind. So here it is. Hope you enjoy.

Fading Light, 30 x 40, acrylic on canvas, 2011

Recent thoughts

I left Toronto with my mind unsettled about what would come in the future and how i might get to a point in my life where I loved what I did from day to day. Over the past month I've had time and space to let my mind wander over one of the most beautiful landscapes I've ever encountered. I feel like I am rediscovering things I forgot since high school days when i basically lived in the art room. I haven't felt this connected to nature and my environment in almost a decade. Yesterday I sat for nearly an hour just listening to the wind in the grass. I have this delicious sliver of time in which to recover as I prepare for things to come.

I've decided to apply for art school. I don't really want to talk about it too much in case I don't get it. One of the things that has become clear over my evening strolls is that I want to learn more about art and what's more, I want to one day teach it. I look back at my life and I think about the darker places where it was painting or drawing that pulled me out of my misery. I want to share that with other people and to help other people who need that like I did / do.

I finished a painting today. It's too dark to photograph it now. I am gonna have a shot at an exhibition proposal to send to a couple of galleries. I have enough work now to have a show i think. I don't really know any galleries around here but I figure this is a good way to get integrated into the artistic community. Crossing fingers something works out.

Will post new painting soon.

Sea Bird

Sea Bird, 36 x 48, acrylic on wood panel

This is my first paintings since I've moved. I love how the textures and colours worked out in this piece. I used a paint roller for alot of it as well as a fan brush and washes of colour to tone things. The bird form was influenced by an osprey.