“A painting is not a picture of an experience; it is an experience.

Mark Rothko

I’ve recently returned to abstract painting, working through fractures and fissures, spaces and contrasts, lines and grids, as the visual language.

There is a new kind of relationship with the painting that is emerging for me. There is a different kind of connection to the making of it. As it is being made, the painting and I are companioning one-another. I begin of course by bringing my “baggage” – the language, experiences and contexts that make up my existence. Then, I start with something – most often a doodle or semi-autonomous line. Sitting with the image, I listen for what it needs to be, and I do my best to respond to that. Often I will leaven them unresolved, “unfinished” paintings, which surround me in their unfinished sates. Being with them, just to be with them. I will sit with each of them in contemplative periods of silence. When a painting speaks back, when it pulls at me, and carries in it a spark that is undeniable, I will listen and respond by continuing to work on it.