Painting Anthropology: The Evolution of a Painting cont...

My process has been about digging into the image and unearthing its skeleton. But where does my mind go during this process? My mind mirrors this unearthing process by placing itself into the world of super consciousness--a world in which time stands still and there is no space and time. It is a world where there is only conscience. The process and the space I go to are both simultaneously involved in this process of processing art.

This space I like to visit--"the space between", is a place that my mind switches over to while in the act of driving or painting. The space between is also known as the right brain modality of thinking. The magic picture books that propel your mind into this three dimensional space is an exercise into this realm. Gurus meditate to be in this place, and I do yoga to strengthen my presence of mind in this splace...meditation and prayer is the figure and the ground that is asking and receiving directions from this place...splace...middle ground and presence of mind...

I search for this place in my painting and am constantly bringing the image in and out of focus by painting layer after layer of paint and then wiping it away. The foreground and the background merge into the middle ground and the middle ground is where I try to get at and yet it is where I am when I get there in my mind. To describe it would be like watching a leaf drift to the ground in slow motion and see it dipping and weaving in and out of focus...