Transmutation 2016-2017
Séance with a Phantom 2016 Oil on linen 50w x 62"h
The Big Finale 2017 Oil on linen 50w x 62"h
She Speaks No Evil 2017 Oil on linen 50w x 62"h
Common Ivy 2017 Oil on linen 50w x 62"h
He Hears No Evil 2017 Oil on linen. 50w x 62"h
The Good Eye 2017 Oil on linen 50w x 62"h
Pleurisy Root. 2017 Oil on linen 50w x 62"h
O Ectoplasma! 2017 Oil on linen 50w x 62"h
California Buckwheat 2016 Oil on linen 50w x 62"h
Big Saltbush 2017 Oil on linen 50w x 62"h
At Home with Friends and a Ghost 2016 Oil on linen 50w x 62"h
Teenager with Something Leaking from her Skirt 2017 Oil on linen 50w x 62"h
TRANSMUTATION
“Water, stories, the body, all the things we do, are mediums that hide and show what’s hidden.”- Rumi
Transmutation is the basis of alchemy: the magical action that transforms lead into gold by accessing its most divine, potent and indescribable essence. This metaphor for the soul being freed from an inert state of mind into pure spirit is similar to what occurs in the mind of the spectator when inert matter “becomes” a work of art. The original formless material of the universe, the prima materia, the pure raw state of consciousness from which we all originate and with which we all eventually merge, is often thought of as the medium that transfers vibrations within all cells of all living beings.
Manipulated samples of Erik Satie’s musical passages form the prima materia of the twenty-two minute Paranormative Quintet, the five-channel story piece that is the underpinning of this work. Fragments and extracts were the stuff that Satie’s work was made of and so it is with mine. Jean Cocteau stated, “The smallest work by Satie is small in the way a keyhole is small. Everything changes when you put your eye to it.”
Soundpiece: Paranormative Quintet, 2017, 5-tracks, 22 min.