3Land

1/15/10

Human Puppets

oil on canvas 30" x 40"

This painting shows two dancers performing a raindance. When I visited this area, I met people who were obviously content with where they lived, despite their poverty. My reaction to their living conditions was so strong--I couldn't understand how they could be satisfied enduring the hardships that they do.

They felt God put them there, therefore they were happy. I painted the two men dancing, then added the puppet strings as an afterthought. They are controlled by a higher power, yet they dance happily.

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Installation Show / 2010 in GZ.China

“Life of the Horizon” is the extension of a theme I’ve been working on for some time. In other paintings I have sought to express what I feel when viewing a horizon uncluttered by a man-made skyline. In “Life of the Horizon” the horizon is not the line where the earth meets the sky, but the line created by a recumbent human body. I first created a simple animation of a line whose motion suggests breathing or a human heartbeat, then made the paintings based on that animation. I used a brown color that’s very similar the earthy color used on the walls of a traditional Japanese house, and used the gradated black and white areas to force the eye to see motion and variation in the brown areas of each painting. My hope is that viewers will sense my own feelings of calm and serenity when viewing each piece.