Escape the everyday world of things analyzed, understood and made purposeful and enter a place where softness, movement, color and freedom allow you to wander at will through both peaceful and turbulent journeys. Escape the known and enter the unknown. Escape adulthood and enter childhood. Become surprised through unpredictable discoveries and the unfolding of fantastic events.

All of this, without going anywhere: vacation into the inner self.

I paint to get away from defined reality, creating each time a new world where things can happen unexpectedly, sparking mystery and curiosity. Painting a narrative: painting as writing. The watercolor medium, with its independent personality and unpredictable behavior, is the perfect means for this exploration.

No two watercolors can ever be exactly the same because one cannot control the movement of the water and the particles of color completely. In fact, it is the opposite of control. Painting watercolors entails a collaboration of the artist with a living medium. The act delicately clings to a state of mind that can allow for this collaboration to happen fruitfully.

Two quotes from one of my favorite books (D.T. Suzuki, Zen and Japanese Culture) relate: "The painter’s business thus is not just to copy or imitate, but to give to the object something living in its own right." (p. 36) "In all things, it is important to forget your mind and become ‘one’ with the work at hand." (p. 114)

When painting in oil, a more permanent medium, I use my observations on watercolor behavior to direct similar episodes.

What can these paintings bring you? The discovery of something new everyday. The dream of a faraway journey not yet embarked upon. A newly found relationship with the natural world at a scale yet to be determined. Adventure.

Look closely, as I do while I paint, and observe the mixed miniscule bonds between colored particles, or stand back far away and become absorbed by a strangely balanced yet inviting landscape.
Do faces appear out of the chaos of forms?
Do shapes embrace each other only to turn disturbingly away a passage later?

Though seemingly abstract, these bio-organic shapes, influenced by my attraction to the natural world, are in fact very familiar. The hues - bright, intense, and descriptive - are highlighted observations of the everyday, processed and reassembled.

Providing directions of rest for our intangible emotions and yet unformed or incomplete thoughts, these are the stories of colors in shape. Look slowly and the narrative will take form.

It will always be a unique and very personal account.