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dreamsenses: the art of bryan!
A conversation with the artist |
"Forms take reality for me as I work. In other words, rather than setting out to paint something, I begin painting and as I paint the picture begins to assert itself, or suggest itself under my brush. The form becomes a sign for a woman or a bird as I work." -Joan Miro, 1947
Q: When did you start the dreamsenses work?
A: "In 1980, I painted a picture of clouds. For some reason I created a red pyramid emerging from the clouds. I call that the beginning of it…of dreamsenses. Then, in 1986, I painted a picture with five pyramids hovering over a circle of stone figures - and that was the official beginning of the dreamsenses series. The pyramids symbolize the five senses of oneself, thus they are a representation of me, or that of the audience. The original pictures were not called dreamsenses; they were called "dreamscapes." But that title seemed to suggest subject matter, where as dreamsenses captures more of the spirit of a painting…and the spirit of a painting is what talks to the soul of those who view it."
Q: What does dreamsenses mean to you?
A: "Sensing my inner-self, sensing my dreams, sensing not the conscious but the subconscious."
"To dream with my senses, and sense with my dreams."
Q: What does your art require of the viewer?
A: "It elicits the viewer to use imagination. As far as what the audience takes away from the picture, it's what they create in their own mind at the time they expereince the piece."
"The paintings are created in a similar way. They start with one color -monochromatic- applied on the canvas with spontaneous brushstrokes. Within the brushstrokes are forms; land forms, rock forms, animal forms, human forms…whatever comes out. This is when I begin the creative interaction with the image. I challenge myself to follow the elements of art in terms of composition, color, and movement. I give them lots of room to paint themselves. I feel my hands and eyes are the tool - the images come from the inside…from my imagination."
"To connect to the painting, you can't just look at it as an external thing. The landscapes are not familiar - they don't contain conventional icons of culture or familiar representations of nature. Your spirit doesn't recognize those things. How does one paint spirit?"
Q: More specifically, what do you think they represent about your inner self?
A: "They are a meditation. When I paint, I can definitely sense my center. I look at my art as a continuum, a timeline of my life. The images record who I have been, where my soul was during a particular point in my experience of being human. That's why many of them do not have the date; they only have my age. They are an expression of stages...or moments of time."
Q: What would you like the audience to take away after viewing your paintings?
A: "I hope they see the images are the true expressions of another human being. They are not candy-coated for their approval, but a reflection of who I am inside. I struggled with representational art in my early work. Not that I couldn't draw, it was what I drew wasn't who I was. I made the shift from representational art to spontaneous spirit art, and it was impossible to go back."
About the Artist
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