Zero

Painting Title: Zero
Size: 34" wide x 55" tall
Medium: Acrylic on Board

This painting is on a board that has Golden Section Dimensions.
The Space is broken up into the Golden Section Proportions.

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Zero has two uses…both important, but distinctly different from each other.

One use is as an empty place indicator in our place-value number system. For instance, in the number 102, the zero is used simply to put the 1 and 2 in the correct "place". When the place-value use of zero was introduced, a simple dot was used…note the diamond-shaped dot…the ancient Hindu form called the ‘bindu’.

Secondly, the zero is used as a number itself, meaning "none", "empty" or "nothing". Indians used the Glyph "0" as early as 640 BC. Fibonacci, the Italian mathematician who introduced the Hindu-Arabic number system to Europe around 1200, called it a "sign" rather than a number. His name for zero was "Zefiro"---from the Semitic sifr, which meant "empty".

In this painting, the most prominent figure is of the Glyph (symbol) we westerners use for the number zero. The glyphs in the upper right and left corners are ancient Sanskrit. Other words which mean zero are in the painting: nul, null, nol, nula, cipher, etc. Meden agan ……Greek for "nothing in excess"…the wise words of the Greek oracle at Delphi.

At the bottom right, the Greek Gnothi Seauton, means Know Thyself…it is the motto over the entrance to the temple of Apollo at Delphi.

Bottom left: In Quantum Physics, everything is in flux, a world of constant movement, a world of endless possibilities, so I have Zero’s in all sizes and shapes moving through that space…vibrating, swimming in the Akashic Field…ready to spring forth and become…what? A quantity…zero for now, but prepared to manifest. The Zero was, conceptually, the most difficult of all these paintings because as soon as a single mark was made, there was one, a mark…the only real Zero painting would have to be blank. Pulling Zero out of that blankness, manifesting it into solid form, through focus and intention tells a story of Quantum Physics.

Artist's Statement

I used to dance. There’s something exquisite about losing yourself in movement. Sometimes, when I’m painting, I’ll start to dance, especially if I’m listening to Reggae or Zydeco. I almost always paint to music. Being an idea person, an avid reader and researcher, my paintings manifest from contemplations on a variety of subjects --- Mathematics, The Golden Ratio, Quantum Physics, and Spiritual Matters. I glimpse connections and begin to draw thumbnail sketches around the edges of my notes. The internal dialogue is about the concept, then words gradually disappear and visual elements expand until only sketches are coming off the end of the pencil. Later, within the painting, words may reappear. I’ll have an entire body of work "idea", with dozens of sketches as potential paintings, but nothing set in stone, nothing certain. All the thumbnails represent a chaotic assortment of ideas, as if each one were a different perspective on the issue, full of the potential to explain it, but just a fragment. Only if a cluster of fragments is seen together, in a full body of work, can they explain the total concept, as if they were pottery shards that must be glued together in order to see the whole vessel. It reminds me of Quantum Physics which tells us that we are not solid, that we move and vibrate and are filled with the potential to manifest. We need only focus on our desire in order to make it real…solid. So that is how I approach the paintings. I focus on the desire to express the idea. I think about the idea…not the painting. I allow the painting to manifest itself. After working with the Golden Ratio for several years, I now have custom painting surfaces made that allow me to paint within that format. It sets the stage. It is the architecture, the structure on which I begin to build. I break up the space and then insert my one or two shapes, the initial idea, and then the dance begins. Getting lost in the painting process is the goal. It is the meditation, the prayer. It is timeless. There are no words. It is pure experience. And that experience is a joyful one. I sometimes have a tendency to tighten up in my work, to make it more accurate, precise, literal, but I recognize that as a state of distrust. I remind myself that the viewer (and the painter) CAN be trusted to figure it out. Allowing the mystery, the nuance, just the glimpse of the idea to exist in a more painterly realm makes the painting richer and more seductive. With that as my intention, the focus on giving up the inherent struggle between tight and painterly, I have recognized the duality within myself and allowed it to be. And so I paint the way I must. And I do the dance. Layer after layer of paint, I build up the surface, scraping/carving/writing, building it up like memory and digging into it in a search for the patterns and rhythms of Universal understanding. From subtle mark-making to deep cuts, glyphs/symbols, visual information--- anything I can use that will add depth---of spirit, of knowledge, of understanding, a sense of connectivity. We go back and forth, the painting and I, until the dance is complete.