The Circle of Life


“Out of life comes death,
and out of death, life.

Out of the young, the old,
and out of the old, the young.

Out of waking, sleep,
and out of sleep, waking.

The stream of creation and dissolution
never stops.”— Heraclitus 5th c.

This series records the attention being placed, and placed again, using ink applied to paper. By the brush consistently following the breath, absorbed in the gesture, stability is found within the exhale. The work focuses on recording each aware second as it arrives…a document of one present moment after another.


Noticeably throughout the series the smallest variations within the repetitions create fields of unintended pattern. Physics however tells us there is a constant tendency for patterns to emerge. Observing this, these fields create a spacious ambiguity which allows infinite possibilities.


This placing focused attention is a method of opening to these larger contexts of internal spaciousness. In this way painting becomes a method of meditation.