The task is…not so much to see what no one has yet seen; but to think what nobody has yet thought, about that which everybody sees.
― Erwin Schrödinger
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I was looking for something to say about this new painting, New Dimension, when I came across this quote from physicist Erwin Schrodinger that deals with dimensional perception.
I have to admit to not knowing much about the quantum physics to which he refers with these words but the sentiment behind it could be describing the driving force behind this painting and much of what I attempt to do as an artist. I have maintained for some time that art is not about clever ideas or extraordinary subjects but in changing our perceptions of the ordinary, in trying to illuminate those dimensions of the world that remain unseen to us.
The example I often cite is of Van Gogh‘s painting of a vase of irises. It is an painting of an extremely ordinary subject, a vase filled with flowers, A common floral painting that has been the subject of perhaps a million or two painters over the ages. Yet seeing it, one feels that unseen animating energy of nature and the force of Van Gogh’s perceptions of it. It vibrates with energy. It is no longer a simple vase of irises but has become a conduit to a new and deeper dimension, one that delivers us closer to the essence our being. It is now the sacred ordinary.
This piece attempts to go there and does so for me. But I am too close to it to judge whether it hits it mark for others. It is as ordinary as it gets- a horizon, a sky, a sun, a field and a tree. Yet I am hoping that there is something in it that takes you beyond the mundane, something that sparks and allows your inner self to detect the essential forces at work in this simple scene. To find the extraordinary in the ordinary, to feel more connected to our essence. To find a new dimension in our selves.
This painting, New Dimension, is a 12″ by 36″ canvas and will be going with me to the Principle Gallery for my Gallery Talk there on Saturday, September 13th.
Redtree Times 