Dancing Star, 10 x 10″ Acrylic on Illustration Board
“Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.”
– Henry Brooks Adams
I like the contrast between “life” and “habit” in this quote. One of the reasons I love non-objective subject matter is that helps me avoid habit, which, for me, equates with boring. When I was painting landscapes years ago, I found that eventually they all started to look the same. There is an order to the objects we see around us, perhaps imposed by how we have created them or at least in how we perceive them. This sense of order imposed its will on me, made me move in certain directions and not in others. I’m not saying that others who paint differently create boring, habitual art – obviously this is not true! I only speak to my own experience.
By not attempting to depict this order, I am free to roam in all directions. This is both a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that it’s up to me what I create – the curse is that I have few guideposts to help me know if I’m on the right track.
This series is, in some way, all about that chaos. I’m trying to honor the chaos while offering enough order to connect with the viewer.
Nietzsche said that you need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star – this piece is my homage to that sentiment.
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