The End of Meaning
The End of Meaning is a triptych of fresco paintings exploring notions of death, rebirth, and memory.
Background World: Conceptual inspiration arose as I walked the shores of the Salton Sea. At the edge of the desert lake, I was inside a mirage, my skin burning under the blazing sun, lips dry and cracking as the air itself filled my pores with salt. Bones of the dead crunched with every step. As I stared into the horizon that seemed close enough to touch, a deafening silence echoed within the weighted haze that grazed the surfaces of sea and sky. Like a painting, the water never moved. Still. Silent. Surreal.
Left panel: The Way We Remember
Center panel: Sea of Consciousness
Right panel: How We Forget
Patterned Ground
a visual conversation concerning climate crisis as distillations of human history
Through Gaia Screams I remember the End. Or is it the Beginning?
It’s hard to tell… (I-VI)
Scattered Seeds, Endangered Islands
Nomads in Exile – Mother Love
In 2018 I conceptualized a framework titled Nomads in Exile to create artworks focusing on climate change impacts on biodiversity. The first series, Mother Love, concerns the deadly impact of Red Tide in the Gulf of Mexico.
Rising water levels and increasing temperatures allow the algae to reproduce without limit. I find the correlation between human population explosion and excessive reproduction by the toxic algae particularly interesting, which leads me to the question “Is the natural world using metaphor to communicate?”
Event Horizon
Event Horizon considers humanity’s legacy as extinctionists, redactionists, and catastrophists.
Wandering this world, I find overwhelming evidence that the Anthropocene is a form of collective self-murder.
Using the metaphor of a black hole, this artwork imagines the likelihood that we have passed the event horizon from which there is no turning back. The gravitational pull of the singularity is the door through which life on Earth will enter; an unknowable tomorrow.
Event Horizon, (3) fresco on panel, (1) 72×36″, (2) 36×12″, 2019
Mask of Anarchy: A Cover
The poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Mask of Anarchy, is the focal point of this artwork. Shelley wrote this political poem in 1819 immediately following the Peterloo Massacre. It was not published during Shelley’s lifetime, rejected due to the belief that “the public at large had not become sufficiently discerning to do justice to the sincerity and kind-heartedness of the spirit that walked in this flaming robe of verse.” (Leigh Hunt, The Examiner). It was a call for freedom. Many believe it was the first code of nonviolent resistance.
The artwork is an interactive piece. A meditation cushion placed in front of the artwork invites viewers to sit in contemplation. The fresco imagery was created to symbolize modern suffering. The curtain of 1000 cranes is an action of hope for change. Marimo Moss Balls are living representatives of healthy eco systems. They consume harmful algae and create a thriving environment for aquatic animals.
The Mask of Anarchy
“Stand ye calm and resolute,
Like a forest close and mute,
With folded arms and looks which are
Weapons of unvanquished war.
And if then the tyrants dare,
Let them ride among you there;
Slash, and stab, and maim and hew;
What they like, that let them do.
With folded arms and steady eyes,
And little fear, and less surprise,
Look upon them as they slay,
Till their rage has died away:
Then they will return with shame,
To the place from which they came,
And the blood thus shed will speak
In hot blushes on their cheek:
Rise, like lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number!
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you:
Ye are many—they are few!”
~Percy Bysshe Shelley
Mask of Anarchy: A Cover, fresco on 2 panels, vertical panel 60×30″, floor panel 30×30″; mixed media to include 6 hand forged nails, 1000 paper origami cranes, crystal beads, silver thread, glass vase with obsidian stones/water/Marimo Moss Balls, 2019
Warriors
Warriors reflects on the weight of time. Each piece is a ghost warrior from human history demonstrating the courage it takes to create the future we desire out of the actions of today.
Beauty Bleeding Through
The practice of Artist as Nomad provides the background world for the visual narratives I create. Through the gathering of unfamiliar experiences, I make note of beauty that bleeds through the interstices of ordinary reality, spontaneously healing rips and tears, wounds and separations. I experience beauty as a warrior dispelling disparity, giving hope, providing understanding, instilling courage to act, and fueling desire to make change.
Convergence: Cosmological Powers
Evolutionary cosmologist Brian Swimme describes the journey of the Universe through what he refers to as 10 cosmological powers; each power growing into the next. In 2018 I created a layered painting of those cosmological powers, one on top of the other. The final piece is titled Radiant Convergence. To communicate the project, I created a book titled Convergence: Cosmological Powers. The following images are the journey expressed visually and illuminated by Brian’s ideas.
