Death has eluded me like the Holy Grail, - but whenever it came close it left some debris, particles, for lack of a better term, I shall name ‘souls’. For many decades design
and illustration has been my bag. They are disciplines that endeavour to speak to a larger audience, megaphones in a sense. But to my mind, ‘painting’ should address one’s own soul. These miniatures are my paintings. In this context ‘painting’ is far removed from design and illustration. These are the first recorded beginnings of a lengthy journey into my inner world that is trying to find expression. I rummage around in the back of my head,hunting for a signal that lets me go on. Images emerge from everywhere, concepts arise, embrace. A unified icon materializes – perhaps.

‘Painting’ squats there, keeping a bigger distance to ‘Art’ than it does to Myth and Magic. It always hovers there on the edge of the mist of Space and Time, guarding its origins from pecking by rhyme and reason. You take it too far away from those origins, toward logic, accepted values, and a host of other traps, and it dissolves before your eyes... becomes just ‘Art’, -these days the icon of uncertainty.

As far as I can figure, my images here derive their conscious motivation largely from Friedrich Hundertwasser, my ‘Leidensgenosse’ of over half a century. Yet his existence I had been almost entirely unaware of for most of my life. Nevertheless, our separate paths through life showed many similarities. What impresses me most is the way he worked; for instance, his assumption that his paintings are jewelry. The ‘preciousness’ of his creations, as he saw them, echo strongly in my mind.

‘Souls are usually considered to be immortal. Many beliefs hold they exist prior to incarnation. The concept of the soul has strong links with notions of an ‘afterlife’, but opinions may vary wildly, even within a given religion, as to what may happen to the soul after the death of the body.’ (Wikipedia)