ABOUT THE LONG DARK ROAD

The artwork in this gallery could just as well be in the “Magic Kingdom Gallery”.

I have felt for the longest time that honesty is a prerequisite to good art, which differs from good draughtsmanship. If one can paint from a desire to speak one’s heart, right or wrong, to go deep and embrace the shadow, to no longer be so concerned about acceptance in any particular corner of the art world, whether or not one will sell his/her art, to just step off the gerbil wheel and pick up a paintbrush so to speak, then one will paradoxically have an audience.

The prints in this gallery are reflections and thoughts I have had about this world, and how I have related to this world. It has much of the time been a seemingly strange and crazy world. And how does one react to living in a crazy world?

Intuitively it’s about one day glimpsing a back door behind the world stage, perhaps by accident. Drawn to the door you reach for the door knob and pull the door open. You step through and find yourself in a quiet place where the world narrative has become a whisper (or a scream) back from where you came, where the audience is applauding in a theater that now looks like a crazy place, with a whole lot of clocks and signs of infinity affixed to crumbling monuments.

Many years ago I was sitting on a hill overlooking Boulder, Colorado. The day was turning to night, as the great plains darkened and the lights of distant towns lit up. All around me there was a shimmering glitter of lights of every kind of green, as well as blues and reds. Through this shimmering I experienced the distant towns on the plains, and Boulder below me, as dark presences. It felt like I was witness to an alien invasion slowly unfolding in plain sight. It was an invasion almost totally estranged from the spirit of nature that was all around me, stretching out beyond the darkening horizon.

While outside I can still see the alien invasion unfolding in slow motion. It’s a kind of tragic comedy. Looking for the truth in all the wrong places.

But bright lights only seem to make the dark road darker. And for now there is no going back. When on the long, dark road one can see very far.