Artist Statement: The majority of my artwork can be described as experiments in visual phenomena. For the past couple of years I have sought out new technologies, techniques, and materials to formulate an inventory of numerous variables to experiment with. In particular, I have focused on building a visual vocabulary of the countless variables of light and illumination. Scientists have spent lifetimes developing consistent physical, biological, chemical, and mathematical explanations for the principles of light. It is up to me, both as a scientist and an artist, to present this knowledge to the world in a way that everyone can appreciate and understand it. I feel this can be accomplished through art.
The illuminated art that I create is a direct result of my experiments. The experiments I tend to choose to embark on are those in which the visual phenomena that will result when I combine multiple variables is uncertain and I am unable to hypothesize a mental visualization. I often use the scientific method in my artwork, consciously and unconsciously. For example, when I work with glass as a material to create optical lenses I may begin with a hypothesis I wish to test. With the results of the experiments, successful or not, I now have new data to help me reach my goal and create future works. This process will lead to the exploration of fundamental technological problems, even though the original motivation for the work was otherwise. Eventually, the tests yield data which the public see in the form of exotic creations (art), some successful and some unsuccessful. The craft or technique developed though my experiments may be used to bring forth imagery that narrates a particular statement or opinion of mine, or as experimental or process art, the tests and their results may be viewed as aesthetic statements in themselves. Through my artistic and scientific methodology of experimentation and creation of new imagery, new techniques, and new ideas can be introduced and integrated into our culture. The imagery I present in my finalized artwork tends to be ambiguous, abstract, and nonrepresentational of any specific narrative or meaning. I purposely leave my artwork open to having several possible meanings or interpretations. The usage of radial symmetrical designs is common in my artwork. Flowers, shells, jellyfish, crystal structured, microscopic organisms, and molecular structures are just some of countless varieties of radial symmetry that occurs in nature. The natural geometry of radial symmetry has been adapted into mandalas by cultures all around the world for immense range of personal, spiritual, religious motives. The purpose and definition of a mandala is a container to embody the designs essence through its central core. I use the central core of my contemporary radial symmetrical designs as the focal point to showcase the visual phenomena that result from my experimentations with light. The presentation of the results of my experiments in illuminated visual phenomena is my first priority; to present them in a visual pleasing artistic format is secondary yet tremendously important to me. I am currently generating art through my experiments with illumination by electroluminescent wire, neon and argon, LEDs, halogens, ultraviolet/black-light, arc lamps, lasers, fiber optics, fluorescents, phosphorescents, incandescents, and fire. With these variables, I produce sculptural optics, projections, and shadows. Further exploration into optics have incorporated the effects of light as it passes through acrylics, liquids, glass, diffraction gratings, holograms, reflective surfaces and two way mirrors. By working with and exploring the interactions between these technologies and materials I can easily spend a lifetime experimenting with their limitless possibilities to create and invent new and contemporary illuminated visual phenomena the world has never seem nor thought possible. |
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