Artist Statement

Author Henry Miller once defined art as “something which stirs men’s passions, which gives vision, lucidity, courage and faith.” Using this notion and shocked by the human misery visible on the nightly news, I decided to create a series of paintings that might inspire us to head in the other direction: human happiness and well-being.

Inspired by the philosophy of visionary scientist Teilhard de Chardin, Buddhism and the compassionate poetry of Khalil Gibran, I’ve played around with iconic images from my Catholic upbringing, along with images based on a beautiful porcelain statuette of a golden Buddha that I have had in my possession for many years. I’ve also used aspects of Tibetan Buddhist thangkas, iconic Hindu images, and, of course, images of superheroes from the DC/Marvel world, the idea being that, if we try, we can all be our own superhero. We may even achieve enlightenment!

The resulting figurative paintings are either acrylic and/or oils, sometimes with added ink outlines. The sun rays are influenced by Bridget Riley’s op art. Preparatory sketches were done during the Covid lock down period, leading to what I call ‘my 20-20 vision’.