Life in Abstraction

Walker Fine Art

300 West 11th Ave #A
Denver , Colorado , 80204
Tel: 303.355.8955 | Fax: 303.623.0553
Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, Noon-6pm, 
First Fridays 6-9pm or by appointment

When you set out on your journey to Ithaca,
pray that the road is long,
full of adventure, full of knowledge.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the angry Poseidon — do not fear them:
You will never find such as these on your path,
if your thoughts remain lofty, if a fine
emotion touches your spirit and your body.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the fierce Poseidon you will never encounter,
if you do not carry them within your soul,
if your soul does not set them up before you.

Pray that the road is long.
That the summer mornings are many, when,
with such pleasure, with such joy
you will enter ports seen for the first time;
stop at Phoenician markets,
and purchase fine merchandise,
mother-of-pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
and sensual perfumes of all kinds,
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
visit many Egyptian cities,
to learn and learn from scholars.

Always keep Ithaca in your mind.
To arrive there is your ultimate goal.
But do not hurry the voyage at all.
It is better to let it last for many years;
and to anchor at the island when you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.

Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.
Without her you would have never set out on the road.
She has nothing more to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you.
Wise as you have become, with so much experience,
you must already have understood what Ithacas mean.

Constantine P. Cavafy (1911) 

Recently, I’ve been working in the ceramics studio. Here are a few pictures of some of that work.

I believe that it is a direct response to Mankind’s need to understand the World surrounding him, his quest for self validation and purpose, his desire to see the Invisible and the unspoken, his urge to comprehend emotions and Universal truths, (*ie: Beauty, Tragedy, Death etc…)

• Photography is discovered as Art from – Daguerre 1939
• The Unconscious and Dream Analysis is discovered – Freud and Jung 1915
• The Theory of Evolution – Darwin 1859
• World War 1
• Einstein, Marxism, Mao Tse Tung

• World War 2
• Hiroshima
• Nuclear Power

External Factors: History, Politics, Science, technology, Humanities (arts, poetry, music, writing, architecture, etc)

Internal Factors: The “Self”, personality, character, belief systems (spiritual or other), acquired knowledge, personal experiences, health

a) Objective Abstraction: A voluntary simplification, a conscious choice to eliminate irrelevant detail, emphasize, dilute or distort real forms and a suggestion of ideas (symbols) in order to create a more direct message.

b) Non-Objective Abstraction: Non representational images that do not refer to the visible world. A language of Color Fields, Scale, Gesture, Geometry, etc.

Abstract Art raises human Consciousness

The purpose of Art is to elicit a response from its audience.