Vision
My current digital fine art painting work explores the concept of a "natural field theory." A basic premise is that when you view the world around you, the rods and cones in your eyes are only detecting one dimension of the energy present in the environment--that of reflected light that ranges through the visible spectrum. Living things and minerals may radiate energy in other fields that operate in a different temporal scale, and/or in wavelengths outside human vision. Just as infrared film allows us to see a heat-field view of things, the natural field concept explores a vision of the natural world that fuses reflected light with an envisioning of other energy fields.
Inspiration
Many of my works are inspired by the incredible range of textures and colors in nature, the spiritual impact of sacred places, and/or a lifelong fascination with maps and geography. Seeing other artists' works at galleries or open studios (or better yet artists at work) is stimulating.
Process
Some artists start an artwork with a vision of the end result in mind. Others start working with no particular goal, engaging in a voyage of discovery and exploration. For them, it is the serendipitous accidents that result in the most compelling work. So my process begins with setting up the right environment for serendipitous accidents to happen, and then trying to get out of the way. After working awhile with a canvas, sometimes I am lucky to get to a point of transcendence where the painting stops being a painting, and becomes a totally believable world. Beyond that, there are turning points when suddenly the artwork becomes something I would have never anticipated, planned, or thought of. Those moments where something amazing is revealed are the highest point of the creative process. As Alberto Giacometti said, “The object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create a reality of the same intensity."
Working with digital media allows for exploring many alternate paths for one artwork. Whereas a traditional media artist throws away possibilities with every creative decision until the final arrangement dries on canvas, I explore many of the alternate paths, ending up with dozens of versions of the artwork. Usually one of the versions feels like it best exemplifies the vision mentioned above.
On the limitations of web galleries
This web gallery cannot give you anything like the same feeling you would get viewing the art at life size, mounted on a wall. While the images of the art might span a few inches on your screen, in real life they would be 3-4 feet across. There is just no comparison--sorry about that.