Astronaut acrylic, color pencil and gel transfer on Wood panel, 45″ x 55″
4/15/2014 One of the greatest ironies of our age is that we know so much more about the mechanics of the universe than we do about the inner workings of the human psyche. The vast sums of scientific inquiry directed at understanding the cosmos are testament to our need to project the human narrative into the stars. And while one could argue that peering into the heavens is a roundabout way of looking inside ourselves, the fact that science still has no universally accepted definition of the self seems to indicate that the “final frontier” may be something much closer to home.
Until recently, the question of the integrated self has been the concern of the science of psychology and the practice of psychiatry. Before that the self languished in the more esoteric domains of philosophy and religion. Only recently have the emerging studies of evolutionary psychology and socio-biology been bolstered by verifiable evidence from the hard science of genetics and bio-chemistry in helping shape an integrated picture of how the self works.
As an artist, I find myself preoccupied with creating a sort of pictorial triangulation between the domains of myth, my own layman’s understanding of science, and the more vulnerable and fuzzy aspects of being human. In this new body of work, I am exploring the idea of the integrated self by looking at the internal dualities and contradictions of personality, and layering them against scientific and mythic imagery. Starting with people I know as subjects, I have sought a much more personal approach to mapping my own thoughts on this topic. In my thinking, it is entirely possible that the “self” is not a fixed entity, but a tangled composite of bio-chemically charged neurons, learned behavior, cultural biases, and even transpersonal phenomena. Admittedly speculative, these paintings are my attempt to suggest some of those connections, and to do so with both humor and empathy.
Double Rainbow Plans Acrylic and India ink on canvas, 46″ x 46″
