2. "Abstractions in a Lost Tongue"
The work is inspired by Mayan writing -- glyphs that have been deciphered by
etymologists. Among other things, the texts speak about cyclical time in a kind of
ancient software code that the Maya painted on temple walls to keep the Universe
running smoothly.
But the series is not about what the glyphs meant as much as what they evoke: a
phantasmagoria of luxurious line, masked glaze, sponged light and perhaps a
warning that any civilization can come to its own demise through ecologically
induced disaster, war and over-population.
The paintings are informed by the art of Wolfgang Paalen, Richard Pousette-Dart,
and the early work of Barnett Newman, Adolph Gottlieb, and Jackson Pollock as
they used Native imagery as a catalyst for unconscious association and spiritual
renewal through the primitive.