Four

2006

42" Wide x 26" Tall Quadriptych
(each piece is 21" wide x 13" tall)

Acrylic on Board

No Longer Available

Four panels make up the Number 4 painting. In the center is a square (4 sides) with one of the Arabic Glyphs for "4". There are 4 Noble Truths in Buddhism: in this piece, I see these 4 truths in the panels:

Upper Left: Suffering Exists (I see all the words and glyphs for the # 4 as being the constant chatter in our heads…the absence of quiet space)

Upper Right: Suffering Arises from Attachment to Desires (the 4-sided pyramid is an "object" and so represents materialism)
Lower Left: Suffering Ceases when Attachment to Desire Ceases (more quiet space, holy Readings/ teachings, and the allowing-in of the "bubbles" from the 4th panel…)
Lower Right: Freedom from Suffering is Possible (I see the "bubbles" as the sheer potentiality of Quantum Physics, where the space is filled with and surrounded by the # 4, but they move freely, even moving up into the material-based panel above)

None of the panels is just one thing…each has the elements of the others:

*In the upper left panel is a large Indian Glyph for "4", with Arabic, Ancient Greek and Mayan

*In the upper right panel, an Ancient Greek Glyph, the 4-sided pyramid, and the Babylonian "4" Glyph

*The lower right panel has a square with a hill shape in it, the Chinese Glyph for "4". The writing: The number 4 is a quantity. It represents "the first born thing" because it is the "…product of the procreative process" multiplication. 2 x 2=4. A four-leaf clover. There are 4 directions in the geographical coordinate system. Four beasts of the Apocalypse, Connect 4, 4 Wheel Drive, The Final 4, Mah Jong: Chinese game of 4 winds, Square Dancing: Hands 4, 4 Star Generals, Hotels and Restaurants, Degas’ 4 Dancers, As a form, 4 is a square and represents materialization. F. D. Roosevelt’s 4 Freedoms: speech, worship, want, and fear. Dogs are our 4-legged friends . The 4 preferences: Extroversion/Introversion, Sensing/ Intuition, Thinking/Feeling, Judging/Perceiving. 4-year College Degree Program, 4 Dimensions: Breadth, Width, Length, Time In the square in the lower left panel, the writing: The four elements> air, water, fire, earth At Seder> 4 cups of wine, ask 4 questions, read about 4 sons The 4th utterance of redemption Aristotle’s 4 causes: Material, Formal, Efficient, and Final 4 – a Rational Number The 4 Evangelists: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John 4 Letter Words are Bad Words for "Four" in different languages used in this painting: Sanskrit: catvaras, catasras, catvari, catur Avestan: cathwaro Tokharian A: stwar Tokharian B: stwer Armenian: corkh Ancient Greek: tettares, tessares, tetores t Oscan: pettier, petora Latin: quattwor Italian: Quattro Spanish: cuatro French: quatre Romanian: patru Old Erse: cethir, cethoir Breton: pevar Welsh: pedwar Scots Gaelic: peswar Gothic: fidwor Old Icelandic: fjorer Swedish: fyra Old Saxon: fiuwar Anglo Saxon: foewer English: four Old High German: vier German: vier Church Slavonic: cetyre Russian: cetyre Czech: ctyri Polish: cztery Lithuanian: keturi

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.