These paintings are visual keys that illuminate mysteries. Using ritualistic processes that allow me to connect
with an inner, less-visible reality, I explore some of the paradoxical and magical aspects of life.

My studio has become a blending of a temple and a laboratory: a temple because it is a meditative space
with a strong spiritual and devotional energy, and a laboratory because it is a place where I test out ideas
and experiment with creating the images that you see here.

The creative act starts with an object, a thought, an image, an idea and as the work develops, new and
vital aspects are revealed. The finished work is an expression of discovery and revelation that constantly
surprises me.

Using objects that have personal meaning for me, such as stones collected from beaches around the
world, leaves found while out walking, thorns from the Black Locust tree, and most recently, animal
and human skulls and bones, I create a composition that is potent and charged.

This process has become ritualistic for me, in that I imbue it with the power to delve into the unconscious.
The key is that by honoring the intrinsic energy and symbolism in these objects, they work their own magic
to create connections of mystery and insight. When this happens, when I get out of the way, then I enter
a realm that displays and understands real beauty. This is why this series is called Rituals and Meditations.

I now see that real beauty is a striking and disturbing balance of opposites. It is disturbing because it
destroys our attachment to surface values, and exposes the unsettling inner core of honesty that is the
world. Beauty has to be both yin and yang, both light and dark, both life and death, both stability and
motion, both emptiness and fullness, both black and white for there to be a real and honest expression of
beauty. We react with fear to one side of the coin because it represents the unknown and often the
unknowable, but life will always remain unbalanced unless we embrace these paradoxes and hold them
close to our hearts.

These paintings are an effort to open myself to this vision of a universe both seen and unseen. Take time
to look deep into these paintings and you will discover your own keys, your own insights, your own magic.