The SWIRLS - Therapeutic Artwork

Swirls have many layers of meaning for me as an artist.

I started painting swirls at a time in my life when things were a bit more unsettled.  A time when I was dealing with a lot of things on a lot of levels. Perhaps at that time, swirls were my nod to things swirling a bit out of control.

But over time (perhaps paralleling me getting my life a bit more together), I realized as an artist that painting swirls—even the most exuberant swirls—requires a tremendous level of control and discipline.

And now, it is clear to me that swirls are also a manifestation of the range of thoughts and ideas that are constantly swirling around inside me…the ideas that inspire and engage me.

During my life, I’ve also always journaled.  So I’ve always been engaged with words…fragments…sentences…stories.  And numbers and letters have always had significance for me.  Plus, I find numbers and letters and typography to be an artform all its own.  Because there were always words in my life, it seemed natural to include them with the swirls.

But words…and thoughts…and ideas…occupy different layers of visibility.  Some are buried deep within, covered by layers so that they may never be revealed.  Others are very public.  And then there are those somewhere in between—that sometimes peek out, revealing only cryptic parts of a thought or story.  And therein lies the challenge that is often also the catalyst…or the catharsis:  identifying the words and phrases that are most meaningful…deciding where those words and phrases ‘fit’ in terms of their visibility…and allowing the resulting painting to be the organic outcome of those decisions.  It is often this ‘deciding process’ the creates tight and meaningful bonds between myself as the artist and the client for the words and numbers. 

Call it therapy…call it collaboration…or whatever else you choose.  But the end result is something intensely personal.