Contemporary Abstract Series - Currents

Contemporary Abstract Series – Currents

I was inspired to start my series called “Currents” when I was driving from Los Angeles to Palm Springs through the Coachella Valley. I was driving on the 10 and neared the end of my journey when I reached the valley of white windmills, as I like to call it. I was driving at dusk and it was a very windy evening. I started to think about the wind, the blades of the windmills churning, dust flying in the air, and the cars barreling through the dim light. I thought about the creation of energy from the strong wind into power. This led me to think about the idea of energy being ubiquitous in life. I started to think about the journey of currents in life and how they influence the subjects of art – after all energy exists in all forms. This was the dawn of a series of contemporary abstract oil paintings inspired by various currents in life on many levels.

This monochromatic outline would become the first painting from the series. It started the next weekend at the beach as a sketch in my ever-present sketchbook while I was watching sail boats race.

I spent a lot of time at the beach in Los Angeles and Orange County on the weekends during this time. I watched how people were brought together at the beach. I thought about the happiness, love, and the connections to life at the beach. Those connections were the final evolution of this painting. The base layer represented the sail boats racing through the currents of water, then on top were the ever present currents of human interaction.

My second painting was done after I took a hike at Runyon Canyon in Hollywood. It was one of those beautiful days in Los Angeles, the sky was clear and there was a cool breeze. On my hike, I pondered the beauty of nature. I watched the dances of light as the cloud created shadows and the perception of each moment was undulating. I saw a monarch butterfly landing on a rock as the cloud shadowed the vibrant colors of the butterfly, the colors faded into each other and faded into the rock as countless people hurried down the trail. I envisioned the fleeting colors created by the energy, wind, and shadow. It inspired this painting on the perception of currents. It explored the moving energy through the light and color.

My third painting was entitled “Penny Slots”. I took a trip to Las Vegas to visit some friends and ended up sitting at The Flamingo playing the penny slot machines at one in the morning (don’t ask). There are no pennies involved in penny slots anymore, but I thought about the coins moving in all directions as the masses of people kept methodically playing the games. The room was filled with loud sounds, the deception, and the graphics made to manipulate your mind to gamble more. I first sketched a perspective of the penny slot machines on a Keno slip in the lobby, and then later painted it. The first layer of the painting is the perspective of a casino floor filled with slot machines. I added the currents, the blur of invisible coins moving in all directions, as those behind sit in a fog gambling. An altered state of reality is the truth of gambling to me. It might be why humans have gambled since the beginning of time.

My fourth painting was done around Easter of 2009 and I called it the “Horse and Knight”. The idea started after a heated conversation about the continued coverage of the apocalypse, the specials on Revelation, Nostradamus, and so many shows on the end of time that speculate on what the future holds. It led me to paint two prevalent symbols of these events – the horse and knight. I painted them on either side of the canvas in opposition to one another. I wanted to show the clouded perception of our true knowledge of what will happen. To me, the truth is none of us really know what will happen and the rest is speculation. Those in power at various times have altered the historical texts, so the information is muddled in conjecture. I tried to show the currents of speculation; the propaganda if you will that clouds the symbols. It has progressed over time, but I am still working on the final chapter of this painting.

Some of the paintings from this series are featured in my book entitled, Intus. You can preview the book by clicking on the below links.

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