Introduction: I have included occasional thumbnails of known descriptions of magnetic force among other images that add to the flow and interest of this page. These thumbnails are not my artworks and they are not always meant to be descriptive of any particular painting. The purpose of these thumbnails are meant to provide a light context in place of a concise artist statement.
Process: These paintings are all created by applying hand colored metal particulate to linen that rests on a magnetic plate. The dry pigment is applied by hand or tools. As the particulate accumulates on the surface, it falls into charged formations. These fields are either linear or irregular energy patterns, which leave their impression on the paint body itself. The paint is then fixed and the magnetic plate can be removed leaving the charge as a texture. I then mount the painting on Isorel (common name: Masonite).
Texture: Invisible energy fields are made visible by their affect on the particles as they are sprinkled onto the linen. These energy fields take the form of all over parallel lines (as seen in Bioptic Blocks), which I manipulate in a variety of directions (as seen in Temple Quilt), or randomized (as seen in the center of Lens Swell #1). This is an image of a bar magnet, which I have never used in my paintings. I feel it is a common enough image to convey the idea.
Bioptic Blocks. 6x13". Hand-colored pigments cast in magnetic fields on linen on Isorel. 2013.
On the left is a visual graph depicting a dipole magnetic field in a vacuum.
Lazer Quilt. 20x20". Hand-colored pigments cast in magnetic fields on linen mounted on Isorel. 2013.
Anima #1. 20x20". Hand-colored pigments cast in magnetic fields on linen mounted on Isorel. 2012.
"In the Middle Ages, long before physiologists demonstrated that by reason of our glandular structure there are both male
and female elements in all of us, it was said that "every man carries a woman within himself." It is this female element that
I have called the 'anima'." Carl G. Jung "Man and his Symbols"
"If consciousness resides in the collective, then where does existence reside?" Peter Halley
"In the Middle Ages, long before physiologists demonstrated that by reason of our glandular structure there are both male
and female elements in all of us, it was said that "every man carries a woman within himself." It is this female element that
I have called the 'anima'." Carl G. Jung "Man and his Symbols"
"If consciousness resides in the collective, then where does existence reside?" Peter Halley
Crystal Fragment. 20x20". Hand-colored pigments cast in magnetic fields on linen mounted on Isorel, crystal. 2013.
Zig zag Napthol Red. 20x20". Hand-colored pigments cast in magnetic fields on linen mounted on board. 2013.
Einstein's 1905 paper on relativity described that both electric and magnetic fields are part of the same phenomenon viewed from different reference frames. The experiment that helped him conclude relativity was 'moving magnet and conductor problem' published in his paper titled 'Electrodynamics of moving bodies'.
It is known that Maxwell's electrodynamics – as usually understood at the present time – when applied to moving bodies, leads to asymmetries which do not appear to be inherent in the phenomena. Take, for example, the reciprocal electrodynamic action of a magnet and a conductor. The observable phenomenon here depends only on the relative motion of the conductor and the magnet, whereas the customary view draws a sharp distinction between the two cases in which either the one or the other of these bodies is in motion. For if the magnet is in motion and the conductor at rest, there arises in the neighborhood of the magnet an electric field with a certain definite energy, producing a current at the places where parts of the conductor are situated. But if the magnet is stationary and the conductor in motion, no electric field arises in the neighborhood of the magnet. In the conductor, however, we find an electromotive force, to which in itself there is no corresponding energy, but which gives rise – assuming equality of relative motion in the two cases discussed – to electric currents of the same path and intensity as those produced by the electric forces in the former case.
— A. Einstein, On the electrodynamics of moving bodies (1905)
As stated above, the magnetic force and electric force work in tandem as the same kind of force called the Electromagnetic Spectrum. I have included this spectrum to demonstrate just how narrow of a band visual light represents. My paintings are an attempt to broaden the visual spectrum in the historical context of painting.
Hawaiian Shaved Ice. 20x20". Hand-colored pigments cast in magnetic fields on linen mounted on Isorel. 2011.
Anima #2. 20x20". Hand-colored pigments cast in magnetic fields on linen mounted on Isorel. 2013.
Lense Swell #1. 20x20". Hand-colored pigments cast in magnetic fields on linen mounted on Isorel. 2012.
The image on the left shows how the earth's magnetic fields are affected by solar winds from the sun.
Number 5 in glold. 7x14". Hand-colored pigments cast in magnetic fields on linen mounted on Isorel. 2012.
Tribute painting: Charles Demuth and William Carlos Williams.
The Great Figure
BY WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS
Among the rain
and lights
I saw the figure 5
in gold
on a red
firetruck
moving
tense
unheeded
to gong clangs
siren howls
and wheels rumbling
through the dark city.
Tribute painting: Charles Demuth and William Carlos Williams.
The Great Figure
BY WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS
Among the rain
and lights
I saw the figure 5
in gold
on a red
firetruck
moving
tense
unheeded
to gong clangs
siren howls
and wheels rumbling
through the dark city.
Red Bud. 19 3/4 x19 3/4 ". Hand-colored pigments cast in magnetic fields on linen mounted on Isorel. 2011.
Anima #1 . 20x20". Hand-colored pigments cast in magnetic fields on linen mounted on Isorel. 2013.
Lense Swell #3. 20x20". Hand-colored pigments cast in magnetic fields on linen mounted on Isorel. 2012
On the left is an MRI scan used to 'read' what the individual is looking at by what parts of the brain are activated.
Golden Light Year 20x20". Hand-colored pigments cast in magnetic fields on linen mounted on Isorel. 2013.
The above painting I completed just after seeing Ronald Bladen paintings at the Loretta Howard Gallery on 26th st.
The sculpture 'X' (Monumental), completed in 1967 as well as 'Sentinal' seem seminal to creative form.
The above painting I completed just after seeing Ronald Bladen paintings at the Loretta Howard Gallery on 26th st.
The sculpture 'X' (Monumental), completed in 1967 as well as 'Sentinal' seem seminal to creative form.
Beefsteak Tomatoe. 20x20". Hand-colored pigments cast in magnetic fields on linen mounted on Isorel. 2010.
Cadmium Red Strip. 20x20". Hand-colored pigments cast in magnetic fields on linen mounted on board, plexi cover. 2010.
Harmony in Gold. 20x20". Hand-colored pigments cast in magnetic fields on linen mounted on Isorel. 2010.
Drepung Loseling Monastery constructing a Mandala using colored sand at the Smith Museum of Fine Art.
Mild December Dawn. 20x20". Hand-colored pigments cast in magnetic fields on linen mounted on Isorel. 2012.
Particle Quilt. 16x8". Hand-colored pigments cast in magnetic fields on linen mounted on Isorel. 2013.
Polka Dot Ultramarine. 20x20". Hand-colored pigments cast in magnetic fields on linen mounted on board. 2013.
Split Color Teal Dioxozine. 20x20". Hand-colored pigments cast in magnetic fields on linen mounted on Isorel. 2013.
Blue Vert Ultramarine. 20x20". Hand-colored pigments cast in magnetic fields on linen mounted on board. 2011.
Temple Quilt. 20x20". Hand-colored pigments cast in magnetic fields on linen mounted on Isorel. 2013.
King Solomons' Temple. I think of the above painting as partially an architectural diagram and partially a quilt. I took careful preparations to alternate the direction of the magnetic field lines in the above painting.
Exposed Brick Wall: Williamsburg BK 116 South 2nd. 8x16". Hand-colored pigments cast in magnetic fields on linen mounted on Isorel. 2011.
Sean Scully's wall of light series have stuck in my mind since I changed a signature label in his studio.
There is a small aluminum plaque on the outside of the shiny blue tile building next to his studio entry that reads "Neo Surveillance Technologies".
Color Game. 23x23". Hand-colored pigments cast in magnetic fields on linen mounted on constructed and painted board. 2010.
I was introduced to a game called Mancala. This is the game I picture when i think of the word 'game'.
French Open Fragmented. 20x20". Hand-colored pigments cast in magnetic fields on linen mounted on Isorel on board. 2013.
The above painting received its title from the clay courts in Paris.
French Open Fragment detail. 2013.
I took great pains to score the Isorel 7 times evenly on both sides before cracking it into the shaped fragments that make up
this painting. Once the break was made, fibers were unevenly pulled from the interior of both sides of the cut leaving a
mountainous ridge of fibers along both edges of the boarders.
I took great pains to score the Isorel 7 times evenly on both sides before cracking it into the shaped fragments that make up
this painting. Once the break was made, fibers were unevenly pulled from the interior of both sides of the cut leaving a
mountainous ridge of fibers along both edges of the boarders.
Mali Flag. 7x11". Hand-colored pigments cast in magnetic fields on linen mounted on Isorel. 2013.
Lens Swell #2. 20x20". Hand-colored pigments cast in magnetic fields on linen mounted on Isorel. 2012.
The suns' magnetic loop structures.
Zig Zag Prussian Blue. 21x21". Hand-colored pigments cast in magnetic fields on linen mounted on Isorel. 2013.
Sonic Textile. 19 3/4x19 3/4". Hand-colored pigments cast in magnetic fields on linen mounted on Isorel. 2011.
This diagram on the left describes how a transformer reduces the output of electrical current based on the use of an induction coil. This is an electromagnetic process that allows us to charge a phone with the correct amount of energy from an outlet.
Above you see an example of how I imagine my work in a grouping. There is a language of math and geometry that refers to previous and work that come after. Sound is an analogy that I typically utilize as well as film editing. On the left I have included an example of the quilts made by the women of Gee's Bend, Alabama. See the link below for further exploration.
