The Depth of Things
(show statement for “The Depth of Things” exhibition at Candl Gallery)
The Depth of Things is a grouping of oil paintings on panel and canvas done in a realist style, depicting scenarios of wildlife and objects, artifacts and unidentified anomalous phenomena.
Based upon personal experience, observations and feelings, The Depth of Things describes three fundamental states of awareness that give expression to reality for all sentient beings. This body of work is organized according to these three states:
Oneness
the feeling, brought on when encountering wildlife in its natural environment, of belonging and connection, a knowing that we as humans are nature and everything we do is part of nature.
Sameness
the realization of familiarity, upon finding artifacts such as arrowheads, spear points, or pottery shards, when identifying the mark of human hands on objects hundreds to thousands of years old, a recognition of who we are and who we have become.
Otherness
the experience of witnessing something that is completely unfamiliar, an unknown object in the sky, an unrecognizable technology/ aesthetic/ movement, an encounter with an unknown sentience controlling this phenomenon, a discordance with the paradigm of our known world.
The intent of The Depth of Things is to show the ways in which we exist as sentient beings as we encounter reality. It isn’t difficult for us as humans to realize that in this state of awareness, as we approach the natural world of animals or trees, lakes or a palmetto bush, we exist in a condition of Oneness. With these paintings I want to show that Oneness is a universal experience among all sentient beings. So too is Sameness as it is experienced when recognizing something as being similar to itself. The human experience of recognizing Sameness, knowing that a person with hands made an object and dropped it here, however many thousands of years ago or hundreds of years ago or days ago, is realizing that this person is the same as me. When we see a beer can by the road, we don't think an alien put it there. We recognize it as a human object. This recognition is Sameness. As sentient beings we all experience Otherness whenever we encounter something that is unfamiliar, that doesn't fit with our paradigm of what is believed to be true, believed to be possible, or what is believed to be good or bad. The experience of Otherness can cause us to block it out completely and deny that it exists, or it can cause us to expand our idea of the universe to include it.
An important distinction exists between the objects in these paintings and the information they contain and imply. The objects are not special in and of themselves, but for the information that is encoded in them. My goal is for the viewer to see the pictures and let themselves feel what they feel. If a viewer looks at the picture of a UFO and their reaction is “this is not real. I don't believe in this,” then they have sensed Otherness in a state of rejection. And if a viewer sees the same picture and feels “I believe this, I've seen this too,”or “I know somebody that's seen this, it still feels weird” then this recognition is also to know and acknowledge Otherness. Whatever reaction is elicited on viewing the artifacts, whether it be “who made this, how was it made, what technology was involved, what was the intent,” the underlying question is how does this feel human to you? Does this feel familiar to you? When viewing the group of paintings that present Oneness, I feel that each viewer will stand in front of these pictures and all have a similar experience: this is familiar, I know this, this is where we live and what exists among us, this is what I'm a part of. This is the system that I'm in.
I want the viewer to see how these three concepts of Oneness, Sameness, and Otherness actualize in their own minds.
