Over the years, as I continued to work in the studio, I customarily would write brief descriptions about what I completed in the studio as well as my thoughts about what the work was about. I tried to give context to what I had written. I have always insisted on a logical progression in the work, as it developed. In this way, the present is connected to the past giving meaning and credence to what has been written.
In the present there is always a bit of the past. The essays to follow are a written documentation of my thinking process as it has unfolded over the years.
Through words, I have tried to bring my studio activity into focus. Those words are a rational collection of my thinking process. Precious little of consequence comes out of nowhere.
The essays have been added to my website to help others understand my thoughts in the construction and thinking that led to the development of the final work. The subsequent texts are a guide to understanding the processes and reasoning behind my actions. For me, all things mature after a great deal of thinking. That thinking lives on in the words I have drafted over the years to help the viewer, of my work, better understand how I arrived at point “B” after leaving point “A” behind.
The texts are provided to help the viewer comprehend the development of my work over the decades.
For me, nothing happens by chance but rather by design. All the work, in one form or another, is connected and properly explained in the subsequent texts.
Putting pen to paper has occurred on and off throughout the years. First beginning as an art student and continuing to do so as the need arose to record my thoughts. Whether it was about the work that I was focusing on at the time, or about some point of interest that defined my thinking.
As I recorded my thoughts, I would date what I had written and placed the accumulation of words in an envelope and set theday’s writings aside. In time, it became apparent that it was imperative to stop and finally bring all those brief notes that I had, for so long, squirreled away and try to construct those elusive moments into a final and encompassing essay about those thoughts that crossed my mind. All the while explaining and connecting what my work had been about over all these decades.
In so doing, I have kept some of those earlier dates and inserted them into the final essay. In a great deal of the essays one will find many dates, past and present, within the same essay that referenced the thinking as it has come and gone only to return. I keep saying that in the present there is a connection with the past. Having kept those brief comments for all those years has made it possible to craft essays on topics that once crossed my mind. I have always tried to rationally move forward with my work. What I have written is a record of those essential moments when I explained, once again, how I got to where I was and currently am with my studio activity.
Understanding what I was doing has always been important to me even when the revelation was a slow process. Hopefully,what I have recorded through my writing, over the years, will help others understand how I have arrived at the point I am today.