THE PAINTING WITHIN THE PAINTING WITHIN...

Reality is a hall of mirrors. Each level is one more possibility. The human mind unfolds in all directions like a tesseract. Try to understand the space-time continuum. You will begin to see what I am getting at. Shakespeare nailed it with Hamlet’s play within a play. It is very convenient & comforting to simply glide along like a Magpie in the one and only world. As soon as you add thought you step back. You observe you observing the Magpie. It unfolds from there. Add memory, dreams, ideologies & the knowledge that there will be a future time. The dimensions open up like an origami lotus. I call this painting Juicy Fruit because what is better than a stick of gum? Step back. Think about it.

ANCESTORS

Who are your spirit guides?  Could they be Magpies? Could one of them be a familiar like a horse? I used to be a Doubting Thomas. I needed to feel the wound before I would believe. I used to be a scientist in all my thinking. “PROVE ALL THINGS”.... it was chiselled on the wall at the Rutherford Building at McGill in Sir Ernest’s own words. No more. I am living in the mystery now. There are more things in heaven & earth than I dream of in my philosophy. I met a woman who has gifts as a psychic. She told me in no uncertain terms that one of my spirit guides was my grandfather Ross. He is with me now as I sit at my computer. Ross was the kindest man I have ever met. He chose the blessed path of the meek. This is  photograph forms a detail from 'JUICY FRUIT" - a photo of Ross, myself & my brother David. I tend toward the vainglorious & flamboyant. Ross is with me and with my brother. He keeps us grounded. Remember your ancestors... they are the link to knowing who you really are.

TRANSPARENCY

Why do we all return to the great master? Salvadore Mundi. The Saviour of the World. This is a newly discovered Leonardo. Check out the eyes. How do you paint glass? How do you paint something you can see through? I believe this is one of the greatest challenges. We see glass or water in our world all the time. We understand glass visually because we move. The light refracts, tells us there is a transparency in the way. It is not so easy to see it when it is still. The glass orb in Jesus’ hand is numinous and luminous. The meaning is clear. He has sees through the world with the clarity of Holy Water... not through a glass darkly.  My attempt to capture the Apple Harman/Karmon speakers that produce such amazing music is just that... an attempt. I need to clarify the  lucency of my vision. 

Equestrian

The horse is who we once were. When we knew horses we were the best version of what a human can be... just as a five year old child has arrived at the most evolved age of the human life journey so too when we knew horses we were in our proudest warrior selves. The horse civilizations were living civilizations. We achieved our apogee. Even a Ferrari is just a machine. Even an F-18 is steel & glass. It is a dead thing. When I was a cowboy in the Crowsnest Pass I had 7 horses. I should say I loved 7 horses. A horse is a partner... like a spouse. A horse is very beautiful. The relationship with a horse is that between equals. This is my first painting of a horse... a thoroughbred named Elvis who knows like Pegasus how to fly. My niece on the back of Elvis the black horse knows the joy of flight. Canter, Lope and Gallop. Lift off.

TOOLS

What are the tools we use to anchor the image? A stick with charred end. A stone chisel. A 2H exquisitely sharpened pencil. A brush daubed in cobalt blue. A wireless mouse. My brother David sits at his desk with the monitor in front of him.... strokes the pixels with a cursor... the bison at Lascaux surface from the depths. The firelight flickers while the medicine-men sit quiet in their circle. Around us are the spirit guides.  I hit the button on the back of my flatscreen. My dark room glows with presence. I imagine a time where the inside of the mind is a cave. My very thoughts... my beautiful, precise, swimming thoughts float through the ether.... anchor themselves for an instant, for ever on the fields of my neural networks. Painting with my thoughts. That pleases me.

MAGPIE

 

    Who am I? I am Magpie….. I survive!

  In my cast off black tuxedo coat

  My shirt tails white as the Holy Ghost 

  My restless feet I dance a wicked jive

  Who am I? I am magpie….. I survive!

       

Magpie fly the forest dark in the playground park 

She no pretty bird,she a beauty in a cocktail skirt 

Magpie high as a kite on the sky and the dirt

She struts her stuff, & shows up on a lark  

Magpie in stiletto heels, afternoon delight

Be careful, babe, or  Magpie go for good tonight ..............chorus

          

Magpie scavenge road-kill in the gutter drain 

She belt out rock-’n-rollin’ vaudeville tune

Magpie shadow-box with sunlight’s dazzle noon

She say... “You ain’t my boss!... I’m free as rain!”

Magpie risk it all on one last snake-eye toss 

She talk, She mock, She rock the big rock box ...........chorus

Magpie laugh it up.... amuses gull and loon

She screech & chuckle, coos the Jailhouse blues

Magpie tease the eagle,she love just one for true

The Gothic tattoo Queen of the loose and cool

Magpie voice my fear: “Hey leave the dog alone!”

She sing like no one’s business, steals the show ....chorus

JUICY FRUIT (aka Where is She?)

Another enquiry into the nature of the gaze. In “Juicy Fruit” everyone is looking for someone who just isn’t there. The viewer looks upon the monitor which despite the advent of FaceBook is still just a screen with pixels... bits and bytes. Where is the person who should be at the monitor?  One magpie that is “real” looks for his mate who is alive in cyberspace. That magpie looks at the camera which is taking her picture. Who is taking her picture? The rider of the horse takes the picture. The horse looks for his rider. The man in the window looks at the horse... Where is she? The people in the photo look out into the world. Who are they looking for? The viewer looks at this world of enquiry, asks what is it... who is it I am looking for. Gaze into the darkness... perhaps the one you seek is just beyond the veil.....