Artist Statement:
I make art because it is the best way for me to communicate deeply with others. My work attempts to bring the viewer back to the peace that dwells within us. As I continue to deepen my practice of meditation and self care, I increasingly infuse these principles into my artwork.
I am fascinated by watercolor. Even a single, isolated brushstroke can be its own masterpiece. Laid thick with pigment, it settles into thousands of tiny little nooks and crannies in the paper, adjusting to the fibers. Colors swirl together. Water incorporates into the paper, lays down pigment, and then vanishes. Like a snowflake, a brushstroke is never duplicated. Watercolor is truly magical.
What is Deep Urth? My artist name arose from a desire to connect with nature. In my early 30s I developed an interest in meditation. Transcendental meditation encourages practitioners to find a teacher who will give them a mantra to recite. This mantra is repeated over and over during meditation. I was too shy to talk to a teacher, so I made up my own mantra, “deep earth vibrations”. It was an attempt to access some invisible wisdom by listening to nature. I imagined deeper vibrations of some low frequency that you can feel but not hear or see. I would recite it with every exhale. Now, that spirit lives on in my pieces. Figures in a state of reflection or objects to reflect upon show up in my work, pointing to the ultimate truth: that we are here now in this moment, completely.
In my paintings, I am creating a new utopian planet, “URTH “. It is my way of floating on paper. It is putting love and nature and fantasy creatures together and mixing them up and adding paint splatter. It is my way of creating a world of no suffering. It is my way of taking the cold savagery out of nature and replacing it with warm nurturing. Here, flora and fauna, human and machine, all care for each other.
My lifetime of 3-D modeling, engineering, and materials science bleeds into my work, reflecting an appreciation for geometric structures, abstract form and symbol, and a manipulation of the very nature of things. Please enjoy.