D A V I D  C A R L S O N
Abstract Paintings - Video - Digital Works

S T A T E M E N T

Taoist Geometry

photo - Matt Dunham

My work has an undertone of geometry to it, not in the classic sense, but on a more esoteric level. I use the word poetically. The aesthetic includes a painterly approach, precision handling and an underlying sense of design through collision, tension and opposition. On the surface, there are recognizable shapes, mostly circles, but also rounded forms and lines that create movement and structure in the space. By their physical nature, circles become fixed in space between the more gestural lines and layers that create movement and a sense of time. The painting’s layered surface include heavy texture, scraped areas, fresh paint and milky veils, which allude to the formation or destruction of random sequence. Without having specific objects or trappings of identifiable ‘real’ images, the paintings cross over perceptible boundaries locked to a specific meaning. This allows me to look directly at diverse ideas in an intuitive manner. The act or experience of painting becomes the reality for the basis of the work. I am influenced by the experiences of everyday life, the natural environment and travel to diverse cultures throughout the world. By blending western sensibilities of abstract painting with eastern philosophical ideas rooted in Taoism and Buddhism I have been constructing contemporary mandalas that play with the ephemeral and transitory realm of energy, movement and space in this densely packed turn of the century free for all.

David Carlson