Artist Statement
From the mid-1990s to 2001, I listened to Coast to Coast AM, a radio show which broadcasted all sorts of paranormal topics, like extraterrestrial visitation, ghost hauntings and psychic phenomena. In 1999, the radio show’s host, Art Bell, interviewed psychic twin sisters Linda and Terry Jamison. Linda and Terry were acclaimed psychics and practiced a type of writing called “automatic writing.” Automatic writing is a type of writing a person performs by bypassing conscious thought and allowing intuition, higher self or a spiritual guide to control the writing utensil the person is holding and channel a message.
Years after I heard the Jamison sisters talking to Art Bell about automatic writing, I wondered what kind of image I would create if I drew in a similar way a person performs automatic writing; in other words, I would not draw anything in particular or anything my conscious imagination manufactured. After drawing several pictures via automatic drawing, I learned that automatic drawings were already fashionable and categorized into an art genre called “Surrealist automatism.”
One of my first drawings which highlighted surrealist automatism techniques was Cosmological Interference, a pencil drawing. Initially, I attempted to draw a self-portrait without looking at a picture of myself, relying only on my memory and my own perception of my appearance. As I was trying to draw myself, I saw a cosmic scene peeking through the paper’s greyness. The scene included three spherical planets and a triangular unidentified flying object (UFO). After I drew the planets and UFO, I proceeded to trace dotted bubbles. The conglomeration of dotted bubbles and various other small shapes I saw and traced produced what I perceived to be cosmic dark matter that enwrapped the person, my so-called self-portrait, I had drawn.
After I completed Cosmological Interference, I imagined that every sheet of paper had a picture preprogrammed into it, and my task was to let my unconscious mind unveil the picture. I wondered if I would get better at allowing my unconscious mind to take the reins and produce more discernible, deep and shocking images once I had employed automatic drawing techniques for a while. One day I thought that it would be fun to draw God, not from my imagination, but, instead, from my unconscious mind. Maybe God stored an image of His physique in each person’s unconscious mind, so each person would intuitively know what He looked like and would recognize Him if He physically appeared, I conjectured. So, when I watch the pen in my hand scratch and dance upon the paper’s surface, spilling imagery from my unconscious mind, I also wonder if a picture of God is going to emerge. Maybe someday.
On exhibit at Spring Valley Library from January 7, 2025 through March 11, 2025
Monday: 10:00AM – 8:00PM
Tuesday: 10:00AM – 8:00PM
Wednesday: 10:00AM – 8:00PM
Thursday: 10:00AM – 8:00PM
Friday: 10:00AM – 6:00PM
Saturday: 10:00AM – 6:00PM
Sunday: 10:00AM – 6:00PM
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