Contemporary and Postmodern
My work is both Contemporary and Postmodern. It's Contemporary in that I'm
not trying to revive an art of the past. I'm not an Impressionist or Paleolithic
cave painter. But what is Postmodern about my art?
Postmodernism values subjective experience and personal exploration as sources
for understanding. Postmodernism values questions more than answers. To claim,
as I do, that we must question, test all boundaries, and determine truth for ourselves
is thoroughly Postmodern.
Postmodern artists have brought art down from the soaring, cerebral abstraction
of the Modernist period. Another way of saying this is that Postmodern art relates
much more closely to the lives we actually live. In fact, to the average person,
Postmodern art may not look like art at all. My saying that my life itself is
an art form raises common Postmodern questions: What is art? How do we know whether
something is art?
Grounding: Iron Deficiency
mixed media construction
After years of neglect and derision by Modernists, some Postmodern artists
revived art that was psychological, figurative (has recognizable subject matter),
and narrative (tells a story). Most of my work, even my life as art, fits these
three characteristics of Postmodernist art.
Any of us who keep our eyes and minds open as we live in this Postmodern age
are almost certainly Postmodern ourselves. Nonetheless, there are "refugees
from Postmodernism." These are people who find our era's complexity, ambiguity,
and subjectivity overwhelming and threatening. They gravitate toward art that
is comforting. Thomas Kinkade and Terry Redlin, for example, have been remarkably
successful at commercially exploiting the anxieties of these refugees from Postmodernism.
Although I hope my work is seen as beautiful, it's not sugarcoated. Sappy nostalgia
won't make the complexity disappear. I'd rather deal with ambiguity by living
it, by experimenting with the mysteries.
Artist's Statement
Awe, Ecstasy, and the Sacred
An Experimental Approach to Living and Art-making
Contemporary and Postmodern
Artist as Missionary
Artist's Statement for the Figure Paintings
Artist's Statement for Landscape Paintings
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