The Choir III

We sing in the language of our circumstance. Sharing our words, the song is a greater harmony.

This is a choir.

Existential nihilism is balanced by a metaphysical joke so incomprehensibly profound that it brings a balance a mystery and a beauty. Sisyphus finds meaning.

There is a faith that I subscribe to; the universe is ultimately beautiful and meaningful, without that assumption I could not produce art. The basis for this belief is, primarily, an inner subjective feeling objectively, my understanding that a scientific theory, if true is beautiful and so extrapolates to the idea that a meaningless universe would be ugly and inconsistent.

The Barefoot King

Serendipity and the Thief

As an artist I know I am not unique in experiencing serendipity, the silent helping hand always seems to be in evidence when I am on purpose with my art. Serendipity is the force, whether sentient or not, that aids the creative act. The thief is the force or circumstance that removes it. This has many forms and ultimately just is. The good or bad of it are irrelevant; it is all part of the erosion that will ultimately wear away any singular creative expression. Manifestations I have direct experience with are theft, vandalism, censorship, fire loss, breakage and general erosion.

Father and Child

The nudity in the piece has everything to do openness, vulnerability and a lack of distance between father and son.

The son’s life has play and meaning because of the boundaries placed there by the father, without the father keeping the balloon from flying it would be lost to the child. (November 2009)

Mocking Bird in an Orange Bush

We wander through our lives from one chore to the next, from one certainty to another. We carry the tools and the baggage that is appropriate and wear the hat that was assigned to us or that we decided on.

Suddenly unexpected magic comes our way; we drop our baggage, remove our hat, and observe, communicate, and live. A new experience helps us to be alive, our lives become magic again – as they should be.

Maybe I am paraphrasing the saying – “The purpose of traveling is not to see new things with old eyes but to see old things with new eyes”. (November 2009)

The Long Moment

The personal significance of this piece came to me as a compete surprise.

I was sculpting with the intent of exploring the theme of father and son. I came to realize that what I was sculpting was actually an exact moment in my past, a very vivid memory. I grew up in small town Saskatchewan, my father used to leave for longer periods to work in the north, one day about a week before Christmas my father was again on his way out the front door, I was sitting on the floor looking up at him when I had the strong thought; “pay attention and remember your father because you may never see him again.”  He was dead soon after.

I also became conscious that I am now roughly the age of my father at that time.  I realized that as I was sculpting my father I was to some extant doing a self-portrait. That father and child are both part of who I am now. The moment is with me always. (November 2009)

Perfect Symmetry on a Cloudless Day III

When sculpting or drawing a person I always like to think that the narrative behind the face is always much more descriptive than the exact physical representation. Objects or thoughts also have the power of narrative existence.

In this case the rock is real to the adult figure in the sculpture but does not even exist to the boy. He may have the choice to adopt the rock as real, or he can choose to not give it being. (November 2009)

The Fortune Teller II

My first thought is that it is simply a portrait of introspection.

My second more convoluted thought is that this is a kind of existential piece in that the person reading his or her own fortune is engaged in an act of metaphysical madness. She is the diviner and the divined, the player and the playing field, the meaning and the generator of meaning.

In order to be meaningful meaning must be bestowed externally. This may be a folly of the human condition but I truly believe the universe has meaning – for it not to would be insufferably ugly. Scientist get a feel for the likelihood of a conjecture being through how beautiful a theory is, I cannot imagine an existence that is ultimately ugly. Existential angst is just something we do to pester ourselves.(November 2009)

The Breadcrumb Man

I do not sculpt to illustrate stories or ideas; the narrative attached to a piece always comes while sculpting or after the piece is finished.

Mocking Bird in an Orange Bush

The Undeniable Bravery of Your Averave Balloonist

The balloonist stands on a towering precipice ready to fall or take flight. This is a jumping off point, the leap of faith that is creativity. The visual language that is used here is a tower. In other pieces I have used a diving board with similar intent. The opposite of these visual symbols would be a bridge – where a person uses it to change his location or circumstance with a predetermined outcome. While Religions tend to prefer the imagery of bridges, I believe that artists like diving boards.

An argument could be made that creativity is the most frightening of all activities because the outcome is always a mystery. At the same time creativity is an integral part of a sane life. The unexpectedness and non-linearity of creativity makes us fools. That’s a good thing.(November 2009)

“The Lawyers” (Joyco, Joyco and Boyce share a vision;
Roland Gandalf and Peaches do not)

This piece is in large part a reflection on my thoughts about narrative in art. I feel that the art of iconic certainty does a disservice to the viewer. Art is dynamic; it has force and counter force and is to some degree a dichotomy as a realistic reflection of life and living.

The passion of the lawyers directed to a common ideal is given counterpoint by the varied interests held by the dogs.

We have goals and ambitions with a public face on them at the same time we have dreams and aspirations that are truly magic. These are dreams that are ours alone. I suspect that most people have forgotten what they are and that they are far more important, true, and real than the mundane, agreed upon ones.

My art tends to be about the dignity and quiet heroism of people. People as anonymous heroes in uncelebrated dramas, the dignity that gives value to strengths that do not need the yardsticks of approval or amortisement – this is the stuff of my art, dignity achieved through the will of desire.

This piece has been displayed at the international departure lounge of the Vancouver International Airport under the Art Loans program for several years. (November 2009)

I Dreamt I could Fly Again

I would guess that most of us remember flying in our dreams and how real and true it is.

The piece also references the victory column in Berlin. This was a meeting place for angels in the movie “On Wings of Desire”, a German movie that was remade by Hollywood into “City of Angels”

It is also currently a somewhat controversial backdrop for Obamas’ European speech. (August 2008)

The Audit

The major elements of the piece are not present at all, the water, the auditor, (unless the central figure is the auditor) and the viewer whom the dog has become aware of. There is a sort of crossing the river Styx theme minus the ferryman. (August 2008)

The Scar

I have a deep respect and admiration for women of substance- not large women per se but women who show evidence of having lived. When drawing models I often times have a problem with younger beautiful models that sometimes have their physical beauty as part of their identity. Recently I had a larger model who was in my studio for the second time, she had been so moved by her last modeling experience that she wrote me a poem about it, the poem contrasted what she saw as her wounded sexuality to what came out in the drawings, which was not wounded at all.

The Fortune Teller

A self-contained piece about introspection and intent where she is both the creator and the one entranced by her future. The suitcase symbol here is not the same as a regular suitcase as it is more a container of the functional tools for life, with less of a possibility of the collection that could be called life’s baggage. (August 2008)

Perfect Symmetry on a Cloudless Day II

The Narrator

Though the piece is not about my aversion to bridges. I have noticed that religions love the image of a bridge; a bridge has a starting point and end point and avoids the water totally. It wouldn’t take long to find numerous examples of this.

Artists and passions love diving boards once you leap the outcome is entirely uncertain, but that’s passion and creativity for you.