New Series - Sensorium

This painting, (Senza, 30" x 40"), is the first in a new series I'm creating called Sensorium. Broadly defined, Sensorium is the totality of those parts of the brain that receive, process and interpret sensory stimuli. The sensorium is the supposed seat of sensation, the place to which impressions from the external world are conveyed and perceived.

With this new series, I'm interested in exploring how we perceive and sense experience. Is it possible that aspects of a painting might stimulate more of our senses than  just the visual one? It is common and easy for us to visualize soaring images in our mind's eye when listening to a moving symphony for instance. Is it also possible we might be able to develop our sensitivities in ways that make it just as easy for us to hear music in our mind's ear when "looking" at a work of art?

In all my paintings I reach for an elusive quality which transcends a work’s physical properties and can only be perceived intuitively. It's that unseen intangible essence which gives a painting "presence", making it something more than decoration or craft. It's the mysterious act of perceiving a work of art with the "sixth sense" if you will.

While this will continue to be a central focus in my work, in this series I will be exploring a more literal engagement with the senses to see if something might be created which holds out the possibility of resonating beyond the visual....    to the sensorium.