Art: Late Winter '88 and beyond

Reflecting on Michael Garfield's interview with Ken Wilber (parts 1,2, and 3) I want to post an entry on visual art as I've practiced it so far. My medium, charcoal.



                                                     detail at ~300% actual size

The first, and to date most recent, artist statement that I'd drafted was this from 2001: 

There was a time when I found people, in general, so absolutely beautiful that I could scarcely rest my gaze on a face without ascent into some subtle ecstasy. Learning that elation required radical grounding, turning to portraiture offered shade from these suns on the horizons of shoulders. It wasn't enough, to be astonished at the  resplendent topography of the human countenance. I had to reciprocate. I had to give this miracle back.

Perception dictated technique. I came to disbelieve in lines, seeing instead, fields of variance and texture-scapes of gradation resulting in contrast. This shift of scale revealed the equal relativity of surfaces called smooth and flat. This was the recognition that the sky begins here. Papers are mountainous, cavernous terrains. These strata, receptive to the weathers of breath and touch, are fertile ground for celebrating us as the crest in this wave of carbon-based life. The medium, that same element shared with every organic form that supports us.

Exposing the conventional fictions, of line and two-dimensionality, allowed me to treat charcoal on paper as sculpture of slight recess and relief. Through intensive resolving of tonal quality, I watch each piece for the appearance of parallax at stillness, a single-frame cinema.

Today, I see my Charcoal Portraits as invoking three distinct primordial experiences. The way moonlight lends a reduction of hue to the eye. The way we are designed to comprehend the face, then expression, as the most meaningful locus within our visual field. And, especially, the way representation links memory and imagination.

One of the few pieces I have good record of is the 1988 portrait of Mikhail Gorbachev, shown here with the cover letter that accompanied the portrait when sent to him.




The letter reads:  Dear Mr. Secretary, 

In gratitude for your creative leadership I send this one, small gift: a charcoal portrait entrusted to Fr. Luis M. Dolan of the Center for Soviet-American Dialogue... 

As an artist, a student of religion, and a person with friends of many nationalities, may I express my intentions in the following hopes. 

To share a singular craft in the commitment to a universal work of art: Peace. 

That the fact of your receiving this token of acknowledged inspiration testify to our inter-dependence, and celebrate our essential relatedness. 

That this portrait demonstrate (however metaphorically) the will to perceive humanity as we are, and to portray ourselves with even a generous accuracy.  

That ever truer perception occur on every level, in every direction. 

So that future generations actualize potentials made possible through the steps we presently take for their sake. 

Let us offer this gesture together to those coming heirs of the accomplishments born of our crisis/opportunity. 

Respectfully Yours, ...




It was my habit, whenever possible, to be reading the books by the person I was drawing while the work was underway. Also, to be listening to the musics of their countries or regions of origin, and to have some societal involvement that I could associated with the person/subject happening during that month or so it would typically take to complete one piece. For the Gorbachev portrait the involvement was volunteering for the Soviet-American Citizen's Summit. For one of H.H. the Dalai Lama, the completion coincided with the first seven of the nine days of the World Parliament of Religions (Chicago, '93, where we were both in attendance). For one of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce, I drew the entire portrait in the middle of a Native American reservation.

To the extent that all quadrant factors could be aligned in accord with my immersion in the subject I've tried to accomplish that, as well as a kind of watching those factors fall into place, or be presented as option as the work unfolds in 'concentric' contexts.


Aware that I'm just skimming the surface with this first entry on my visual art I'll let it stand as such for now.

To be cont. ...