November 5, 2001

Since the beginning, dichotomies of influences have existed in my art. On one level I am deeply affected by the surrealists, Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte being my favorites. At the same time, I am equally simulated by the large format photographers of Western landscape.

As I began to realize these two dominant influences in my art, it felt like the freedom of the surrealistic side of my work was in conflict with the exacting technical requirements of landscape photography. Further formal studies emphasized this perspective. Only later, with more artistic discipline, was I able to delve deeper into this seemingly stylistic conflict and discover a commonality - Adventure.

As a surrealist representing life beyond the accepted norms of the physical world, I am a mental adventurer. The resulting art represents my quest into the unknown areas of the mindscape, consciousness, and newly discovered noosphere.

The landscape photographer journeys into the wilderness and brings back images of seldom seen moments in the natural environment. Rare revelations into the mind of nature are the gifts one can capture with a commitment to this larger adventure.

Once I understood this adventure analogy, I found beauty and purpose in Life’s dualities. I became inspired, producing art at much higher levels, with more cohesive results.

Continued pursuit of mental and wilderness adventures brought me to the concepts of Systems Thinking – the interconnectedness of all life.

From Systems Thinking, I realized that the cumulative consciousness (noosphere) in society is interdependent with the natural world (ecosphere). This developed a need for responsibility in my art, and my lifestyle as an artist.

Pure self-reflective art became difficult to produce, followed by feelings of guilt and uselessness. I discovered that creating art from a systems perspective makes the artist a form of conduit for important cultural, social, and political information. This information is the self-correcting data that helps rebalance a system.

I now believe that the transformative potential of art is found here. Natural systems demonstrate to us how both positive and negative feedback loops are used to maintain a systemic balance. True transformative art is that feedback mechanism for our society.

We all know that for nearly every culture, art has been a revelatory spiritual and unifying force in the human community. I feel in my work that the radical individualism of postmodern art doesn’t meet this responsibility of an artist. I am still evolving the skill set and notion of what is transformational art.

Often I am influenced by the notion of a universal art form. Now that the concept of a global community is becoming more common, a global economy is reality, and our information travels with such speed, will a cross cultural polytheistic art form take shape?

My goal, as a visual artist in the twenty-first century, is to evolve a transpersonal psychology, where spirituality and environmental sustainability are the dominant themes of my adventure.