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Reflecting on
studio work always directs my focus to the process of the
contemplative act of personal image making. This creative process
often shifts me to a higher vibration, or centering, much like
channeling or meditation. The rewards of painting are then
invigorating, sustaining, and often cleansing. Signals from the
shadow side, or subconscious, activate aesthetic decision making as
I let go. With patience, the chatter of my stubborn ego is stilled
as order is generated in the compositions. Dumping the cargo of the
ego also allows the release of erroneous perception and illusion. I
begin each painting with minor references to recognizable forms, as
to send the painting off away from the limitations of the naming
nouns. I continuously reflect on the emerging relationships as they
appear layer by layer, but strive to keep the imagery non objective
because the spirit or essence beneath the subject is of this nature.
I align with Constantin Brancusi’s statement, “what is
real is not the external form, but the essence of things … it is
impossible for anyone to express anything essentially real by
imitating its exterior surface.”
In the
endeavor of painting, I respond most to nature, and natural forms
are often the starting place for an image. This is not an
intellectual response to nature, but a path to the undercurrent of
living things, the force behind, the metaphysical divinity beneath.
What we visually recognize as subject is only the casing or surface
of the object. There are deeper levels of information that are not
visual, that can be investigated through art making. I find this
process not so much from thought to action, but from improvisational
action to thought. The character of this process is to connect with
something greater than myself that moves through me. The work then
has an open continuity and mystery, and influences the actual
quality of my life away from the easel. Not knowing the next step in
this dance is essentially what keeps me dancing.
Date and Place
of Birth: 1956, Milwaukee,
Wisconsin
Education
1975-77 Studio Art
& Creative Writing, UNM, Albuquerque, NM
1987: BFA Studio
Art, NMSU, Las Cruces, NM
1988: MA
Curriculum & Instruction, NMSU, Las Cruces, NM
Solo
Exhibitions
2009: Unsettled
Gallery (September) Las Cruces, NM
2007: Gas Food &
Lodging, White Raven Studio Gallery, Las Cruces, NM
2006: Late Night
Ragas, White Raven Studio Gallery, Las Cruces, NM
2004: Impulses,
New Mexico State University Gallery, Las Cruces, NM
Spring
Preview, Conti’s, Las Cruces, NM
2002: Seeing
Through Smoke, Las Cruces Museum of Art, Las Cruces, NM
2001: Silence
Sound Silence, Corbett Gallery, New Mexico State University,
Las
Cruces, NM
1999: Introspect,
The Artists Wall Gallery, Boise, ID
1998: Recent
Paintings, Nabes Gallery, Las Cruces, NM
1987: BFA
Exhibition, Corbett Gallery, New Mexico State University, Las
Cruces,
NM
Group
Exhibitions
2007: Artshop:
Dorn,Wetzel,Shaw, White Raven
Studio Gallery, Las Cruces, NM
2006: Winter Show,
White Raven Studio Gallery, Las Cruces, NM
2003: Raul Dorn &
Stephen Cox, JME Studio Gallery, Las Cruces, NM
2002: JME Studio
Gallery, Las Cruces, NM
Step Up
For Kids Invitational, MMC Foundation, Glenn Cutter
Gallery,
Las Cruces, NM
2001: Common
Threads: An Artistic Journey, MMC Foundation, Glenn
Cutter
Gallery, Las Cruces, NM
2001: Artforms
Exhibition, MILC, Las Cruces, NM
2000: Fecund
Rhapsody, Hunger Artists Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
Border
Artists Invitational, Glenn Cutter Gallery, Las Cruces, NM
Selections From The Permanent Collection, University Art Gallery,
NMSU, Las
Cruces, NM
I-10
State Highway Mural Project Design Winner, Las Cruces, NM
1997: Three On The
Third, Lohman Gallery, Las Cruces, NM
1996: Arte del
Camino Real, Adobe Gallery, Mesilla, NM
Segundo
Festival De Los Pintores, Museo del Chamizal, Cd. Juarez
Mexico
1995: Arte del
Camino Real Invitational, Adobe Gallery, Mesilla, NM
1994: Close To The
Border (Purchase Award), NMSU Art Gallery, Las
Cruces,
NM
1986: Close To The
Border, NMSU, Las Cruces, NM
Annual
Student Exhibition, NMSU Gallery, Las Cruces, NM
1985: Annual
Student Exhibition, NMSU Gallery, Las Cruces, NM
1985: Adam Chase
Gallery, Boulder, CO
Awards
2004: Arts in
Education Award, Dona Ana Arts Council, Las Cruces, NM
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