IMAGE forms:
material imaginaries
(works on paper)
Coupling
Threads stretch between bodies. Taut and tenuous. These works explore the dynamics of connection, the balance between union and autonomy. Watercolor moves like emotion: fluid, unpredictable, imprecise. Threadlike lines bind and divide, mirroring the labor of sustaining relatedness. A line stretches, pulling bodies together. Or apart. Captures the fragile balance of intimacy held against the risk of collapse. Coupling asks what we become by tethering to another.
The Golden Thread
Fragments form a volatile map : part ruin, part revelation. A thread of gold attempts to bind what is broken, frayed, or forgotten. Repair and consolidation... are they acts of effort or surrender.
The process is polyvocal; a movement between voices, languages, source materials, and associative histories - as if navigating concurrent dimensions. Impulse (only) guides the spontaneous arrival of the image. Even in the making-process there is only one guiding truth: one cannot try to be surprised. And yet somehow surprise is the only truly thrilling quality of experience. Hence, the prevailing law of this method of listening: Do not try to do anything. Only follow.
(please lick to expand for details.)
Correspondences
Some drawings arrive like dares from a childhood friend. At least, I think we were children then.
Sentiments
These rapid sketches are evidentiary documents of “The Pages Practice”. They are created in response to a question provided by a partner in an attempt to communicate beyond rational logic or explanatory structures of language. Human intelligence is so often framed by coherence and inertial systems of meaning. In "The Pages Practice", the two people place before one another questions of utmost sincerity, confusion and importance. Each page arrives quickly, spontaneously, without strategy or expectation, and within the limit of 10 - 15 minutes.
When the analytical mind is fully at rest - the page reveals unprecedented insights.
Pocket Prayers for Impossible Landscapes
Sometimes prayer is a good friend, nudging you toward the almost, the impossible or the not-yet. Landscapes make the perfect spectral containers for such a gentle coaxing; a place to stock and sort through unarticulated longings. Prayer can be an act of quiet rebellion against the singularity of one’s own voice, one’s own company.
The mistake is in believing we are someone. We are not someone. We are some-many.
The Red Door
The Red Door is a meeting place of longing, presence, absence and pursuit. It is a love affair with the monastery, as a state more than a place or calling. Cloisters stretch outward; corridors fold inward. At the center is the Red Door, glowing like a heartbeat. Elusive. Persistent. It beckons and retreats.
There is no solace in the pursuit itself. The Red Door is never attained. It is not an entry or exit to an already configured space. It has no knob. It has no hinges. It taunts with promises that cannot be tested.
Soul Porn
What you will find below is not properly called 'art'. It is a field. An atmosphere. These are artifacts of attention. It has been said that you cannot truly know a person until you step into their home. Think of these images as a home of noticing. These images were taken when the soul felt excited by what it beheld of the world. The definition of 'pornography', in the proper sense, is media that intends to titillate or arouse. One could image that the world is trying to arouse us by presenting unlikely beauty. One could imagine all spontaneous and seemingly-unintended beauty has actually been created in order to stir the spirit into fervor.
This is, at the very least, a most accurate portrait of a person : to notice what they notice, what they feel called to attend in the endless plethora of happenings in this most miraculous life. If you want to know me, this meaning-maker, located here in this life and this body and this multiplicity of voices - you might wander through the field.
Soul Porn is also a collective proposition (a workshop) in which a group of people wander a defined perimeter over a defined period of time and notice what they notice. They take photos and videos, posting onto a group messaging channel with captions in the following format: "This is how _______________ makes love to/with ________________ ." Captions can be literal, playful, associative, free from sense-making, illogical, cryptic, impulsive. This is one way to look through these images - to ask yourself how you would fill in these blanks for each.
This is a better form of social media.
Feel free to send me any captions to the following images. I will happily include them in the research on arousing the soul.
