Artist's Statement

The Japanese have a concept called “bokki” which means “the spirit in the ink.”  The aim of the artist is to pull spirit into matter so that an ineffable aliveness radiates from the work.

 

This is a guiding concept for my pastels.  I am after the light inside a thing rather than merely its external shape.   Through visible form, I seek to suggest the invisible.  I am interested in the energies that animate and enliven creation.   In a word, I’m after “bokki.”

 

The way I sense and feel it, all spirit longs to become matter, to express itself in form.  Out of this yearning, all creation flowers.  When I paint, I become part of this primal process, however small.  I partake in the deeper rhythms of reality.  

 

When I walk to my easel and pick up a pastel, the chatter in my mind stops, goes silent.  I step into another, more elemental realm, closer to the living breath of things.  It is very much a meditative state where a deeper part of myself operates.  When I can get myself “out of the way,” something akin to magic happens:  the painting takes on a life of its own.  It grows beneath my hand like a plant or a tree or a cloud, changing shape and color in unexpected and surprising ways.  It’s an intuitive and organic process rich in mystery and wonder. This wakes me up--teaches me to see. I love this almost more than anything.

 

None of my pastels capture the full dimension of this experience, which is what keeps me reaching.  Yet I hope sparks of that aliveness flicker through these images, and that others get a glimpse of the amazement I feel simply being alive on this miraculous planet.