We all, as human beings, seek to pour our efforts into vessels suited to our talents and capacities. In doing so, we learn and divine the truths and proofs of our existence. We test our relationships and our place in the whole, - the all of Being. We, ambitiously and most essentially, seek a relationship with, the possibility of, an approach to, the Divine.

To this end I became a figurative painter, a painter whose ideas of life are expressed and carried by the human figure. However, as a figurative painter, I was no longer able to subject another human to be characterized as my model, not only my model in the sense of the body I copy, but rather I was rebelling against using another living being as a pack horse for my understanding or lack thereof.

The last years of university were extremely fruitful in eliminating several solutions to this problem and since then I have explored the use of clowns as a mode or carrier for many of the psychological and metaphysical concepts. These mythological models prove to be and still are loaded with successful possibilities. They, however, could not interact with many events, pleasures and trials of ordinary life without either shedding their disguise or being quite perverse.

As an artist I am committed to the expressive efforts of “being human”. I had given up on the human figure as a correlation of physical and spiritual beauty, given up on the human figure as a detached carrier of human perfections (or frailties) and given up (temporarily) on the disguised figure to bring the truthful relationships to the surface. Strongly pledged to both the Classical and Humanist traditions of the visual arts, I was at an impasse.

The “Classical” struggle of humanity’s attempt to communicate “the Divine” is to me a very desirable one.
The “Humanist” traditional portrayal of this struggle appears to be more closely associated with human expressions but is very often an individualistic approach to the Classical tradition.

This tradition so natural to me seems to be an anathema to my contemporary culture and acceptable only in a “purified” existential form. This is of course counter to my primary impulse. Small wonder is this impasse. When in April of 2000 I moved to Lake of the Woods to concentrate on my artwork, I very much wanted my work to relate to the local population. I wanted the work to have the “aha” factor to my neighbours. Stewing on this as well as my creative block, a most natural solution presented itself.

I live in a district where there are two villages and several First Nations communities. All of these communities have “Watch for Pedestrians” signs along the highways and on this sign is an emblematic figure neither male nor female but a full-grown adult figure. This figure has a somewhat ambling gait and depending on the forward angle of this silkscreened figure its energy is increased or decreased. This figure, as a carrier of the depth and breadth of being human, for a figurative painter had more than just possibilities.

In the late summer and fall of 2000 I began exploring the effects of lowering and stepping up the energy displayed as well as alterations in proportion and movement. The “best” possible form was achieved in late fall of 2000.

The last eleven years have proven to be a most fruitful period and pregnant with possibilities for future explorations.