Do I follow a prescribed path with a predetermined destination, or do I trust my own sense of direction which may take me longer and in different directions but maybe I will see and feel things that otherwise I would have missed and because of this I may end up at a far better place?

Much of art and its appreciation comes from what we have been conditioned to believe art should be. I try not to limit my appreciation of art only to the marks that define an object, tell a story or lead me to an intended conclusion. I am drawn to those things that surprise me, stretch my imagination and allow me the  freedom of my own personal aesthetic interpretation and judgment.

I try to eliminate those obstacles and dogmas that restrict my curiosity and limit the value and appreciation for many different forms of expression.

Art is intended to move the human spirit, to broaden our perception and to evoke an emotional response through a visual language. Some languages we understand and some we must learn. 

Abstract Art does not force me to an intended conclusion but allows me the freedom to change, exaggerate, experiment and simplify where I am guided only by what feels right. I am moved by just simple shapes, textures, colors and line that have, in some cases, no reference to anything recognizable but evoke an emotional response within me.

I trust my instincts, intuition and feelings above everything else. I am freed of trying to copy an object and tethered to all the academic conditions that are part of representational art.  It is not my intention to neither dismiss nor dismantle all those principals that have brought me to this point, nor the artists that adhere so dearly to those principals. I respect and learn from anything done well, from photo-realism to abstract or non-objective art.

   I have no formula but consider design and value most important aesthetically to hold a painting together.  I break things down into simple shapes, not concerning myself what the object really is but how it will contribute to an abstract design. I allow myself the freedom to change, exaggerate, simplify, scrape, sand, glaze, repaint etc. I tie shapes together forming abstract patterns until something resonate within myself, I trust feeling, instinct and intuition above everything else.
   I try to eliminate the unnecessary, it is the search for that indefinable connection that tells you when you have said something  close to your own true nature, it is different for everyone and this, to me, is where the beauty of art lives. Some will find it in the skill of rendering  the subject, some in the ambiguity of an abstraction. I try not to limit or restrict anything in this search. I try to remain open, curious, and vulnerable.

  The richest part of painting is when you make that internal connection, I am constantly searching within myself to find that connection. You will have to discover it for your self, it is different for everyone.... that what makes art so beautiful.

In painting everything is relative. color is no exception.  We are just illusionists, if we want something bright we place something dull or grey next to it. If we want something straight we place something curved next to it etc. Everything has an opposite up to down, black to white etc. The degree that we place these opposites or compliments against each other will determined the dynamics of the painting.

A painting should tell you as much about the artist as the subject he or she is painting…. until then, to me, it is just a painting with varying degrees of skill.

The ultimate aim of painting is not decorative beauty but truth … what is truth? It must not be confused with formal resemblance,indeed formal resemblance only reaches the appearance of things where as the function of truth is to capture their essence.     

                                                                                                                                                                                           SHI TAO

I might add not only the subject’s essence but the artist as well.

In philosophy, essence is the attribute or set of attributes that make an entity or substance what it fundamentally is, and which it has by necessity, and without which it loses its identity.

Our identity must be part of our own work…. Somehow we must fight our way in.

                                   It’s beauty only belongs only to those who love it. 

                                                                                                                  Tapies

                                   There is so much art within all of us… if only we give ourselves permission to look.

  The ultimate aim of painting is not decorative beauty but truth … what is truth? It must not be confuse with formal resemblance, indeed formal resemblance 

  only reaches the appearance of things where as the function of truth is to capture their essence.     

                                                                                                                                                                                   Shi Tao

It is when I free myself from trying to be perfect and to meet the expectations of others, and only then, can I try to create art that is relevant… if  only to me.