Gold Construction 21, 36"x42", Gold Plated on Canvas
I paint, destroy and reconstruct, and perform alchemy, all as an integral element of my artistic expression. I use gold in a non-traditional format, in my paintings and constructions. Until now, my studio practice has derived primarily from a heritage that draws from pre-Columbian gold work and shamanism as well as from related rituals of familiar customs and traditions. I have reveled in the colors and intensities of gold, elaborating subtle shadings of the metal, as signifiers of the relation between solar and human activities. As such, I have explored an inventive use of materials to express, along with ancient beliefs, that the glitter of gold transmits a magical and fertilizing energy to humanity.
In this deep inspiration of the ancient traditions of Alchemy and Shamanism, Gold is my raison-d’être. I seek to reinvent gold, its artistic possibilities and place in contemporary art. My paintings continuously morph even with the most minimal ambient changes in color, shape and light. The glitter and radiance of the Gold is more than a mere reflection, more than an optically perceived phenomenon. I believe the magic of Gold contains an energy that is the very yin and yang of life.
Using a non-traditional "Gold Plating Process" with layers of zinc, copper, silver and gold I seek to transform the “mundane into a magical realism" and follow the traditions of my ancestors and reinvent the world.
"Gold is light, color, semen and power"
Goldwork and Shamanism, Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff,
Villegas Editories, 2005
In this deep inspiration of the ancient traditions of Alchemy and Shamanism, Gold is my raison-d’être. I seek to reinvent gold, its artistic possibilities and place in contemporary art. My paintings continuously morph even with the most minimal ambient changes in color, shape and light. The glitter and radiance of the Gold is more than a mere reflection, more than an optically perceived phenomenon. I believe the magic of Gold contains an energy that is the very yin and yang of life.
Using a non-traditional "Gold Plating Process" with layers of zinc, copper, silver and gold I seek to transform the “mundane into a magical realism" and follow the traditions of my ancestors and reinvent the world.
"Gold is light, color, semen and power"
Goldwork and Shamanism, Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff,
Villegas Editories, 2005