Nietzsche said ‘one must have chaos in one to give birth to a dancing star.’ There is something shapeless and primal within each of us, the source of dreams and images, beauty and terror. What defines a work of art, whether it is visual or verbal, written or acted, danced or dreamed, is the extent to which it reveals the artist’s inner world; the curious landscapes of the mind, the flora and fauna of the fancy.
Nietzsche also said ‘in the final analysis one experiences only oneself.’ In relation to other humans we are ultimately alone, separated by distances that mere words and images can never truly bridge. The revelation of art is the revelation of the artist. Van Gogh painted what he saw; Shakespeare’s mad kings, tragic heroes, brutal and self-satisfied villains, and gender-bending twins were not only the citizens of his private world, but also faces beneath his own.
I have no formal training in painting technique, so everything I do is an experiment; a sensation I enjoy very much, though it often takes me years to finish a piece.
Chronicler's Note: 