“All artists really have only one problem: the magnificence of reality, and to express that somehow…”      

   - -Fiona Banner

In the studio my goal is to allow a painting to unfold on its own terms as much as possible, to neither grow too attached nor to reject, but to remain open and receptive to possibilities. I would characterize this attitude as one of thoughtful surrender to paint’s natural tendencies, so that whatever happens next is more or less welcome. As a result of this conscious habit final outcomes are difficult to predict, I expect to be surprised by what transpires, and what could be considered rogue events – accidents and incidents, often ultimately contribute most to a painting’s beauty and intrigue.      

When the goal is to discover a painting in the act of creating it, the discipline is to keep working with steady awareness through inevitable noise and uncertainty. At the end when I let go of the surface activity I never consider its final appearance - the visual experience framed and hung on display, to be finished or absolute: in my mind it remains fundamentally indeterminate / changeable / illusive. What I ask of a viewer is to directly experience the suspended paint gesture without grasping at a concept, or working to re-cognize or interpret it - I ask that you simply look.                          

I believe a painting should help stabilize, clarify, and focus the mind.  It should provide an opportunity for allowing daily turmoil to subside, and act as a sanctuary for the present moment - a vast open space when the mind is settled. If we do not rush to name or judge, and can place on pause the inner dialogue we tend to compulsively engage, a painting’s silence – its actual visual presence, might emerge.  We all possess an inner eye of wonder that calls to this silence.

This fleeting human existence is a vast arena of mysterious comings and goings, a dance in open ground.  Painting helps me remember that this moment – any moment, is ungraspable and unrepeatable and all there is.  I bow to the beauty of the imperfect, the impermanent and incomplete, and to the profundity of Nature, which gives birth to all things but possess none.       

Mike M.