"About Time I" was partly inspired by the following poem, by the German poet and writer Esther Dischereit:
Am Fuß der Zeit
Ich legte mich schlafen
in der Zeit,
bettete mich in sie hinein
und deckte mich zu
mit der Zeit.
Ich habe Zeit zu verschenken,
denn mir ist sie über die Zeit.
Esther Dischereit, “Erlebte Zeit und
aufgeschriebene Zeit”
At the Foot of Time
I lay down to sleep
in Time,
embedded myself in it,
and covered myself
with Time.
I have time to give,
for I have it beyond Time.
Esther Dischereit, “Time experienced and time recorded."
“ABOUT TIME” consists of two different, but complementary series.
In the first group of paintings (About Time I) I deliberately limit form and color to a minimum. I hone in on a few basic visual elements, training the eye to focus and the mind to slow down.
In “About Time II”, I ignore mental control and allow spontaneous, intuitive gestures to come back into the painting process. What would have been considered a distraction in the first series becomes the subject of the second one.
To me, these two approaches represent different ways of looking at the world, and of experiencing Time--the “natural”, cyclical experience of Time as opposed to the more fractured sense of time of our modern world.
While working on the cyclical paintings I could not help but think of Esther Dischereit’s poem. The work and the poem were incredibly soothing.
While working on the second group of paintings I struggled to find a unified theme, until I realized that it is precisely this lack of unity that characterizes the way we experience Time on a daily basis.
The best way to experience the contrast between "About Time I and II" is to see the works grouped together, side by side, in one place.