The Pathless Path
This series, defined as Metaphysical Expressionism, is an exploration of perception and reality, the nature of being and how it relates to the individuation of the personality, a journey and evolution of the soul in which all conscious beings undergo in the process of being and becoming. The pathless path is a reinterpretation of the 10 Bulls art series found in the Zen tradition which illustrates the steps taken in the realization of one’s nature. Through cross-cultural mythological and theological imagery, each piece is meant to represent snapshots or signposts along the pathless path in which all must make their own way.
The Birth of Maya
The first in the series, The Birth of Maya represents the birth of the illusory “self” concept through the abstract prism of names and forms. The Atman or objective viewer floats along the edge of the stream of consciousness, arising from primordial archetypal structures that exist deep within the collective subconscious, forming the foundations of our psyche. “Self” consciousness implies other, giving rise to the perception of duality and separation from the whole.
24x36” Oil and Charcoal Painting
Through the Eyes of Psyche
The sense of individuality is defined through the perception of opposites. We know a thing by what it is not, through a process of relating which forms our perceptual concepts of the world. In this painting, the figures of being are formed as they step onto the ground of existence from the formless waters of the subconscious.
24x36” Oil on Canvas
Driven
Inspired by the Bhagavad Ghita, the horses represent the passions, desires, aversions, and senses that when disciplined, and while adhering to wisdom (the charioteer), support our purpose (the warrior archer), in the form of intuition (the chariot). The path of discipline is represented by the 8-prong Dharma wheel, which also pays homage to the Noble 8 fold path found in Buddhism. In Zen, the archer represents the highest form of mastery in the transcendence of the doer and done. The act of shooting the bow happens naturally, or spontaneously, rather than self-consciously.
24x36” Oil and Charcoal on Canvas
The Constant Gardener
The Constant Gardener represents the aspect of the psyche which disciplines the mind, pulling weeds of vice while planting seeds of virtue. Paying homage to the Christian myth of the garden of eden, the tree is that of self-knowledge which biting from its fruit, creates a sense of separation that is duality. The gardener must work with what nature provides, shaping its form while balancing the spectrum of polarity, on the line of tension that is the edge of the stream of consciousness awareness.
30x40” Oil on Canvas
The Burden to Bear
Merging ideas from Albert Camus’ Existential text, The Myth of Sisyphus, as well as Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, this painting represents the task of finding meaning and purpose in life while facing one’s mortality. As we take on the boulder of consciousness, pushing it out of the cave of unconscious, the burden is transmuted into a blessing. As we grow in our awareness of cultivating our nature in the process of individuation, our very existence becomes an act of Freedom and therefor rebellion.
30x40” Oil and Charcoal on Canvas
As we individuate the personality, bringing the unconscious aspects of the self into conscious awareness, we become CoCreators with the Divine, living through the inspiration of imagination rather than the limits of convention.
40x30” Oil and Charcoal on Canvas
CoCreators
Peering into the Void,
The Formless Takes Form
As the objective observer peers into the void, the act of perception is what gives form to the formless. All is mind, and so we are as much what we see outside, as what we feel inside. Memories of the past, and anticipations of the future, all take place in the present moment and form our subjective experience.
30x40” Oil and Charcoal on Canvas
