FALL 2008:

The works in this series are a continuation of  my investigation into some of the essays found in Dogen’s Zenji’s Shobogenzo. In a well-known verse, Dogen tells us:

To study the Buddha way is to study the self.  To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things.  When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind as well as the bodies and mind of others drop away.

This is a mysterious idea, but I sense that Dogen is telling us that we are influenced at a more profound level than we realize by the whole universe. To sit in silence is to glimpse the connective tissue and be influenced by it.

Each of these prints started with a scan. In some cases it was an ink drawing from a sketchbook, but more often I appropriated photographs of somewhat random “new species” found on the internet. I then worked with parts of the original scan, breaking it down into colors and shapes that could then be re-assembled in unpredictable ways.

A previous series was titled “Myriad Things” and could have pertained to anything. In this series I was looking for messages from animal life. This work represents an exploration into ongoing connections with life forms that we may or may not ever encounter consciously. So much of what surrounds us is never seen, whether we have access to a microscope or not.