“Wheel within a Wheel”: The First Paintings

Tags

Abstract Art, Geometric Art, Geometric Painting, Watercolor, Watercolor Painting

I am trying to retrace my steps to the beginning of the series of artworks I have titled “Wheel within a Wheel.” It started at a time when I was very much attuned to the fact that my life had taken one of those “Aha” milestones when I began to see that my life was not going to follow the clearly prescribed and preconceived steps that I had devised and outlined for it.

I was very ambitious in my late teens and early to mid twenties — not just ambitious really — driven is more like it. I thought I knew what I wanted and how to get it. The Winds were full behind my sails and I traveled far and wide, studying away from my home for almost 10 years. I was mostly alone in new places meeting new people at the time, though I did stay in contact regularly with my family. But abruptly it all changed.

This change, (which many of us face at some point, when we discover our vulnerabilities and limitations,) marked me and redefined my life moving me towards a new frontier — completely out of my control. Like Jacob, I wrestled with the “Angel”, and emerged as in a re-birth to a life that was beautiful, but also with the token “limp”. (My limp will remain undisclosed.) It was at this time that the Biblical book of Ezekiel and the vision of “Wheel within a Wheel” touched and gripped me. There was much more to my life than I had understood or envisioned for myself. Life was not under my control. And a new spiritual journey began in earnest. And for me its expression is evident in my artwork.

I fight daily to celebrate life, growth/development –“to move forward”– and harmony and beauty. I found in geometric abstraction and color the means to exercise this creative process.

After a long conversation with John Mendelsohn about my artwork, he wrote an essay that captured beautifully the essence of the hopes and aspirations I had for this series of paintings.

Here are a selection of artworks from the first years of painting in this series. “Wheel within a Wheel” continues to be a pursuit in my work at my studio.