SENSE
OF PLACE & BIOGRAPHY
If you seek them out, and help them along,
there are places almost everywhere we might call paradise… If
people were openly honest (avoiding all deception) and
sincerely tried to do the
right and ethical things, we could create a better society
almost by magic.
A sense of connection to the land-magic
and cultures of central Mexico, and the extended southwest
colors my “New World” identity.
An endearment for animals has led me toward the care of
several cats and 2 herds of semi-wild horses in the hills
above my rented cottage-home.
Landscapes which leave especially deep
impressions, seem to create an interior existence for me,
a dream state reality. I have an intuitive faith
in their hidden meanings…like promised lands, alive
with protective ancestor and animal spirit guides.
Despite brilliant technological ingenuity,
modern society offers many distractions. Human consciousness
is generally in a dispirited state. The
low aesthetic profile in modern life and the banal commercialism
of public spaces provide indication that art and social
progress work as partners. Leonardo personifies the “divine
creator” of the “Christian era” giving
birth in turn to the scientific age, starting with observations in
anatomy and perspective, the telescope, microscope, camera
obscura.
Creative clear vision - the modern age longs for art (empathy)
to harmonize technology.
Biographical outline early: Childhood
in Chicago/enchanted by mountain range vistas in Tucson
and Denver-which became mental icons and beacons for me/Began
to paint in earnest around age 16/$500 1st prize in first
attempt at a juried art exhibit (1972-age 17) First few
ascensions (of dozens later) into high country of Sierra
Nevada during adolescence/Engaged in study of art history
through college and beyond/immersed in music late blooming
enthusiasm for modernistic artists, especially late Picasso,
mid-Bacon, late Guston, O’keefe, Tamayo,
and Richard Diebenkorn (who expressed facination for Herk’s
drawings)
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