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Meditation 4, acrylic on canvas, 36” x 36” Painting is the poetry of the visual world. It is seen, and is a way of seeing; it reveals, and is a path of revelation; it is a knowing, and a being known. Painting is communication between artist and subject, a dialogue of courage and playfulness, attention and forgetfulness, freedom and discipline, willfulness and surrender; a dialogue in which the distinction between artist and subject becomes blurred. I am always surprised by this conversation, by what I say and what is said or even only hinted at. Each finished painting reverberates with the echoes of the banter and silence that created it and conjures up in others more than I ever consciously intended. Painting is a way of attending to Spirit and being inspirited, a practice personal and communal. Painting for me is an experience of joy, what C. S. Lewis described as "an insatiable desire that is more desirable than all other satisfactions." Color and texture, line and form signify and mean beyond all naming and intention, pointing within and beyond to the mystery of life. Painting captures something of life's essence and simultaneously sets it free. Painting captures and sets me free. I paint from and with my imagination, inside-out, and hope others in reflection go from outside-within. My paintings are an invitation to explore the soul's personal and communal landscape, to attract and repulse the internal portrait, to give expression to the non-thematic and raw material of soul and culture before it receives a name and a category. I am self-taught, yet experiment and failure, enlightenment and disillusionment - happening constantly - continue to be my most faithful teachers and companions. I have learned to trust them. I'd like to say Acrylic is my medium of conscience. But it is so only after the hard fact of chance. My car was drawn into a Sonoma County flea market and the plentiful supply of cheap Acrylic turned into a long-term relationship. More of my work can be seen at the Fourth St. Studio, 1717 4th St. in Berkeley (just north of University Ave.) or on my website: www.timmooneystudio.com.
After the Harvest, acrylic on canvas, 36" x 60" |
