I recently completed two new paintings exploring the watery world of our fish cousins. The first painting captures the murky depths of the walleye, one of my favorite fish. When fishing for walleye you go to a place beyond vision, to a place of feeling. You have to cast out your line and let your lure dive into the unknown. We are creatures of the surface, our natural place is between the sky and the depths. We sit on the surface of this world and dwell in a space of reflected light. With the lure on the end of a thin transparent line we feel into the dim world of filtered light; our eyes are not equipped to decipher the world of the walleye and whatever else may exist below. First through fishing and then through the paint, I feel my awareness expanding into that unknown world. From the depths of that world I pull beauty to the surface.
Walleye, 30"x40" oil on canvas
The second painting is a portrait of the whale shark, the largest of all the fish of the world. As far as I can remember, I don't have any personal experience with whale shark. So this creature falls into the category of abstract idea for me and becomes purely representation. The primary idea behind this painting, and most of the paintings I've made over the past year, is object in its environment. The question I contemplate while I study visual phenomena is -where is the end of one thing and the beginning of another thing. Sometimes the geometry transcends and unites all individuals and all categories. This painting attempts to look beyond biology and explores those geometric similarities. The spots and lines on the whale shark's body reminds me of deep night sky. This correlation makes me believe that all I see and encounter arises from and falls back into geometry.
Whale Shark, 48"x48" acrylic of panel