Crucible

This is one of my first abstract paintings, Crucible. It was inspired by vessels that were in the chemistry lab, used to contain heated reactions. The vessels were beautifully damaged in the process, acquiring a patina like raku pottery. I thought of a crucible as being a necessary component of refinement, of combination, and a place where the unpredictable manifested along with the results predicted by our simplified equations . They also reminded me of the extraordinary beauty that seems to work it's way unlooked for, unbidden, throughout life.  

At the time, I was also feeling the heat, to decide which path and which label I was going to choose, to conform in life: science vs. art, left brain vs. right, logic vs. intuition. To me, those labels and choices were so unnatural, foreign, and artificial, that it was quite painful. Sometimes, in chemistry, the process of combining elements gets pushed, one direction or the other, but it's not a pure process; it's messy. So many years later, my experiment with life is still cooking along, but I'm less interested in forcing the process or giving a pat summary.

Who am I? Who are you? Well, we'll see...Aloha!