How else can we grow out of the complacency of the familiar but to seek the unfamiliar? We remember that it has been common practice for artists to be inspired by outside sources in their quests for maximum beauty and truth. My impulse is not to appropriate nor to commercialize that imagery, but through it, with reverence, to expand our capacity for knowing.
Embodying that intent, the Ancient Imaginary is series of oil paintings on canvas based on the underlying theory and practice of Art/Archaeology. It asks the question, “How can figurative artifacts retrieved from past cultures encourage us to re-imagine our connection to the earth now? I dig out images of ancient and historic Kachinas, indigenous American cultural figures, and use them as visual Imaginaries, i.e. artifacts that point with hope to the future. My perspective is focused on contemporary theories of Art/ Archeology. Not a mere combination of the two, it is a unique discipline entirely, where I use the field research method of the Archaeological Dig for art making.