LATEST WORK MAYA ABSTRACTIONS

Abstractions in a Lost Tongue

This work seeks an intersection between contemporary painting practice, archaeological sources, multi-cultural themes and the parallel between modern and ancient civilizations in their penchant for self-inflicted environmental disaster.

"Abstractions in a Lost Tongue" are inspired by Mayan writing -- glyphs that have been deciphered by etymologists. Among other things, the texts speak about cyclical time in a kind of ancient software code that the Maya painted on temple walls to keep the Universe running smoothly.

This series is not about what the glyphs meant as much as what they evoke: a phantasmagoria of luxurious line, masked glaze, sponged light and perhaps a warning that any civilization can come to its own demise through ecologically induced disaster, war and over-population.

The paintings are informed by the art of Wolfgang Paalen, Richard Pousette-Dart, and the early work of Barnett Newman, Adolph Gottlieb, and Jackson Pollock as they used Native imagery as a catalyst for unconscious association and spiritual renewal through the primitive.
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