StudioMara - About the Artist 4

I begin my paintings as a draftsman or architect begins a plan.

I see the world as created by what is found in nature. As humans are cognizant of only what we, in our given, fixed and therefore limited way; so we create our world. Those things that do not exist in nature are perceived and fashioned by our human-ness. They are created by our relationship to our environment. Our ability to create in our world, things that move further and further away from what nature provides is why we exist separately from our animal counterparts. We can create a straight line that is far straighter than lines that exist in nature. A mirror would not exist without our experience of seeing reflections in water. Architectural structures would not rise without our knowledge of the upward growth of plants. Artificial light would not have been conceived of were it not for the light of the sun.

As there are truths in these connections, so there are truths concerning the cycles of the natural world. They guide our human experience by giving our lives order and explaining our cycle of life and death. As the blossoming of a flower and its bearing of seed is related to the human reproductive cycle, so is the sunrise and sunset related to the life and death cycle. These things aid me in explaining why things are as they are and make existence bearable and meaningful.

As there are an infinite number of connections that can be found, so are the meanings and metaphors in my paintings varied. What I seek to express cannot be pinned down to one specific meaning in any given painting. Geometry affords me the richness of choice.

I begin my paintings as a draftsman or architect begins a plan. On the matter of creating a new painting, the inspiration exists in a variety of ways. Sometimes, the new work is a result of ideas that materialized during the creation of a former work. In that case, the job at hand is clear. Sometimes, I have a vague notion about structure and/or color that I want to explore. Then, it is a matter of finding a structure that will hold the color relationships or finding color that will accentuate the structure.

In the latter case, I have made paintings in which color is subordinate. In Green Arc II and I (1985, gouache on paper), the subject of the painting becomes the paper on which it was made. It was built of lines using a ruling pen; a draftsman's tool that has been in use for centuries. With all of the modern advances that have been made in artists' materials, no more efficient or versatile tool has been invented. Turning a screw can make lines varying from pencil width to measurably wider. The flowing, but still heavy body of gouache makes it an ideal marriage of materials with the ruling pen for distinctive line application.

Green Arc I, Click on the image for a larger view.

To begin Green Arc, I chose a cool green hue, the temperature of that was substantially cooler than the warm tone of the buff-colored paper. The lines are in direct contrast to the paper. As the distance between lines increases, the green hue becomes warmer and closer to the color of the paper until it seems to disappear into the light of the paper. With the fast-drying nature of gouache and the speed Of application with the ruling pen, the lighter lines (made with thicker paint than the darker lines) stand up becoming three-dimensional and casting shadows on the paper. These paintings were formal in their inspiration but can be read metaphorically in their relationship to the appearance and disappearance of shadows cast by the movement of the sun across the sky. In other paintings in which the support material is the subject of the work such as Twelve Variations (1987, gouache on paper mounted on linen), colored lines are matched to both the paper and the linen and appear and disappear across the surface.