TRANSMUTATION 2016-2017
Séance with a Phantom, 2016, Oil on linen, 50w x 62"h
California Buckwheat, 2016, Oil on linen, 50w x 62"h
At Home with Friends and a Ghost, 2016, Oil on linen, 50w x 62"h
The Big Finale, 2017, Oil on linen, 50w x 62"h
Big Saltbush, 2017, Oil on linen, 50w x 62"h
Teenager with Something Leaking from her Skirt, 2017, Oil on linen, 50w x 62"h
She Speaks No Evil, 2017, Oil on linen, 50w x 62"h
He Hears No Evil, 2017, Oil on linen, 50w x 62"h
Common Ivy, 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
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.
Includes transcribed and personal stories, interviews, and crowd-sourced contributions set on top of multi layered and repetitive manipulated tracks of Erik Satie piano music.
