Current Work 2001-2011 Recent Article: Abstract painter finds mind-shifting inspiration in clouds (opens in a new window) Early Work 1993-2000   Bahai Pilgrimage Photos Early Work 1993-2000 (Takes you to a different site on aol)

Chris Page paintings contemporary art, contemporary painting, post modern art.

Stream Series Statement

Water rushes over a small ledge into a pool, then comes up in a continuous series of expansive energetic flows (upwelling). The water never forms a fixed perspective but unveils new ephemeral patterns. This upwelling water has become for me a metaphor for life; coming into being, living and then disappearing back into the original source of being.

My current work, Stream Series, is based on expressive mapping of flow patterns and evoking a sense of place, using as my source, Scarborough Brook, that runs along my road. I see both the flow of the stream and my work to be experiential metaphors for letting go and not grasping for something but rather opening to the fluidity of life and its ever-changing nature. The final look and feel of my work is essentially abstract due to the repetitive layering of energetic gestural patterns. I am seeking to create a continuos flow that does not lend itself to being easily grasped, and which encourages extended contemplation.

Balance and integration between various dichotomies is a continuos theme in my art: the linear nature of drawing vs. the continuous fluid space of painting, form/non-form, color/non-color, representation/abstraction, symbolic/experiential. The work is most successful when there is a seamless dialogue between the form and non-form, creating work that is difficult to see (nothing to see) While having simple clarity of form, line and energy.

My working process typically includes many layers of paint application, via brushing and scraping the paint into or off of the surface and perhaps even washing off what I have just done. I often spread the paint across the surface until it spills off the edge. This spreading begins to lead to a kind of monochromatic emptiness. It is from this point of emptiness that form and/or an energetic direction has a place from which to emerge. The Upwelling works are based on this.

My drawing or painting process starts from multiple centers and proceeds outward, layer upon layer. Circling out and perhaps in again. Using a simple looping gesture, moving my hand rapidly allows the "image" to emerge from my actions rather than from a specific visual preconception. I start a piece with a plan of action (move from the center out to the edge and back again over and over) and an aesthetic notion (use lines in such a way that the eye can find interest both from afar as well as close up). Even in paintings for which I have a specific a priori vision, like Stream Orb (based on a photograph of the stream), I still use the same process within a tightly controlled format.

My process involves constantly moving between the "act" of creating seemingly random chaotic lines/spaces and "seeing" the work develop as something more than just visual chaos. "Seeing" is both visual and visionary. It is the mind making order, pattern, and felt experience within the chaotic gestural activity. I will usually push down pictorial spatial effects that feel too easy or picturesque. This denial the work as a "picture" interests me a great deal. I use pictorial denial to lead me to new and hopefully deeper solutions and expressions. Just as the stream flows with an unending set of patterns, the next flow disrupting the previous one, my art making process mimics this natural and organic creation/destruction cycle.