The connection I have with painting resonates on a deeply personal level of feeling and being. Intentional choices unite symbolically as a meaningful touchpoint of transformation. It is the embrace of not knowing. It is a journey without arrival. It is a quest that does not end or become more comfortable in time. The doorway of myth one steps through as the hero of one’s own journey.

The square panel is the fundamental, elemental ground on which each painting is built. Perfection with its equal sides, right angles, balance and harmony, it carries a charged spiritual symbolism. The purity of beginning: the birth of potential. Penciled grid lines of horizontal and vertical intersections are drawn on the white panel as a grounding, reverent beginning. This will give way to the overlay painting of gesture and process, but its unseen history remains in homage to what went before. This is the context on which the spell of markmaking comes to life.

Layer upon layer, nothing erased. Uniting what went before, learning from it, discovering, peeling back the layers to the significant. Gestures of exploration unite into a single encompassing event where a symbolic transformation unfolds. The myth and the painting story unite. The search for self and clarity. This is the truth of it. Mythical components of being. Markers from the depths.

It is the embodiment of that internal journey, replete with shadowy challenge and uncertainty. It is metaphor and poetry united, and myth finds its place.

Barbara DuRant