Texas Nights
mixed media acrylic paintings
selected paintings from this series
click on image for info and larger view
"Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars - mere globs of gas atoms. Nothing is 'mere'. I too can see the stars on a desert night and feel them. But do I see less or more? The vastness of the heaven stretches my imagination - stuck on this carousel, my little eye can catch million year old light.....What is the pattern, or the meaning, or the why? It does not do harm to the mystery to know a little something about it. For far more marvelous is the truth than any artists of the past imagined! Why do the poets of the present not speak of it? " Richard Feynman Lectures in Physics vol. 1. 1965
Red Starry Universe
Where is the ground of our landscape? What is the most primal level? Space and time have been recurring themes in my work from the beginning.
Texas Nights
I was born and grew up in Texas, often visiting my grandparents' ranch west of Fort Worth. As a child I remember becoming conscious of my connection to the landscape, feeling an intregal part of it. When I looked up at that vast Texas night sky, I experienced the deep mystery in that translucent blackness.
Fertile Nothingness
As an undergraduate I became captivated by the Existentialist philosophers, particularly Heidegger and Sartre. Their attempts to contemplate complete nothingness, the absolute absence of anything, the vacuum of space, I found exhilarating. "Nothingness" inspired me. Compared with the mystery and wonder of nothing, other areas of common cultural experience seemed insignificant.
The wonder that anything exists at all...
Living Under Pressure
Writer Rainer Maria Rilke expressed it well:
"Is it possible that, in spite of inventions and progress, in spite of culture, religion, and wisdom, one has remained at the surface of life? Is it possible that even this surface, which would at least have been something, has been covered with an incredibly dull material till it looks like salon furniture during the summer vacation?" Rilke, 1910; The Notes of Malte Laurids Brigge
Homage to Nicholai Kusmich
Nicolai Kusmich, a character in a story by Rilke, was a man who thought he had a long time yet to live. Assuming he probably had another 50 years of life, he decided to calculate the days, hours, and minutes left to him. Basking in the abundance of all those minutes, he felt rich! Then he began to notice how quickly they were passing by. He tried for a while to save them, doing everything faster, getting to work earlier, drinking his tea standing up, etc. At the end of the week, he saw that he had been unable to save any of the minutes. What was he to do?
One day, while sitting quietly on his couch, he suddenly felt a movement, like a wind, on his cheek. Realizing that it was time passing by, he became alarmed and assumed that the rest of his life would be like this. When he stood up, he could feel the movement of the earth under his feet. He felt dizzy. Oh, this could not be tolerated! So, he lay down for the rest of his life. Eventually he began to recite poetry, which helped. It soothed Nicholai. Poetry seemed like something stable to hold onto. He admired others who could walk around living "normal" lives, ignoring time rushing by and the earth moving so quickly.
The painting, "Homage to Nicholai Kusmich" echoes my solidarity with his plight.
Night of the Encompassing
