PAINTINGS
Ray’s Website
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Member of Flag since 2024
ARTIST STATEMENT
When I was 10 years old, I asked the question, Do I exist? Over the years that question changed a bit to: What is the nature of existence? and What is the nature of the aesthetic experience? I see them as one and the same. They are both about being in the present and going beyond dualistic thinking. It is dualistic thinking that renders reality as a collection of objects. I do not see reality as a collection of objects but rather as an integrated, dynamic and singular presence. It is this way of seeing that guides my painting. I begin by deconstructing the contours of forms, allowing for color to flow in and out of forms as well as from foregrounds to backgrounds and backgrounds to foregrounds. Also, color and amorphous shapes define forms and fragments them into the general field of the painting. Color and its traits are used to deconstruct the implied pictorial space. Colors, shapes, and space become an integrated, paradoxical, symphonic whole which is constructed like a jazz composition. Intuition guides the interplay of all the visual elements within the field of the painting surface.
Besides being a painter, I also do photography and public art. I taught for 42 years in higher education. I taught for 2 years at the University of Illinois in Urbana, 18 years at Wichita State University, and 22 years at Broward College, in Davie, FL. I have also been a guest lecturer at Auburn, Purdue, Emporia State, and Oklahoma State Universities to name a few. I have served on art panels and have juried exhibitions and art festivals.
When I was 10 years old, I asked the question, Do I exist? Over the years that question changed a bit to: What is the nature of existence? and What is the nature of the aesthetic experience? I see them as one and the same. They are both about being in the present and going beyond dualistic thinking. It is dualistic thinking that renders reality as a collection of objects. I do not see reality as a collection of objects but rather as an integrated, dynamic and singular presence. It is this way of seeing that guides my painting. I begin by deconstructing the contours of forms, allowing for color to flow in and out of forms as well as from foregrounds to backgrounds and backgrounds to foregrounds. Also, color and amorphous shapes define forms and fragments them into the general field of the painting. Color and its traits are used to deconstruct the implied pictorial space. Colors, shapes, and space become an integrated, paradoxical, symphonic whole which is constructed like a jazz composition. Intuition guides the interplay of all the visual elements within the field of the painting surface.
Besides being a painter, I also do photography and public art. I taught for 42 years in higher education. I taught for 2 years at the University of Illinois in Urbana, 18 years at Wichita State University, and 22 years at Broward College, in Davie, FL. I have also been a guest lecturer at Auburn, Purdue, Emporia State, and Oklahoma State Universities to name a few. I have served on art panels and have juried exhibitions and art festivals.
Lastly, I was born in Tampa, FL. At age 26 I moved to the midwest for 21 years to attend graduate school and teach in the area. After putting my son through college, I left my tenured position at Wichita State University to move to Fort Lauderdale, where I lived for 22 years before moving to Mount Dora, FL, where I have been living for 6 years and where I maintain my studio. I am a year-round resident of Florida.