The Magic of Presence

“The Magic of Presence” – Artist’s Exegesis

The imagery of this painting is not intended to promote magical thinking. In fact, it intends to emphasize the clarity of understanding that can be realized when a person is functionally present to the confluence of details available when she/her is immersed in a”real world” focus. In otherwords, the imagery suggests that afflatus, the flame of insight, comes to us when we lose our selves to the immediacy of present moment. The painting is not about flights of fancy.

This painting started as a representational image of a lighthouse at the end of a jetty complete with the realistic detail of the various constructions – lighthouse, jetty, harbor – and, the minute detail of earth, sea and sky.
In service to the demand of the subject, I painted out the detail. The imagery needed to be honed to the kind of clarity and utility that is available to us at the fulcrum of presence.

I am not arguing that the experience represented by the painting’s imagery is simple to the exclusion of complexity. It has simple elements. As we all know, the experience of the present moment can be radiant with complex relationships and with the sudden experience of everything coming together in a synergistic expression of meaning.