From my experiences I see that many of us in western civilization are living in a wasteland of sorts. What do I mean by “wasteland”?  The author Nigel Pennick tells us that through our human history and ancestry we have had a collective cultural relationship with the landscape. He explains that we are not separate from the landscape – we are part of it. Reality is what we walk, see, touch, and experience. Pennick states that the “wasteland” comes when the living landscape is rejected or ignored and when humans, in favor of material wealth, abandon the spiritual aspect of nature.

The northern and western European folk tradition is particularly rich in tales regarding this spiritual aspect of nature or the “spirit of the land”. I have traveled throughout 15 countries that share this folk tradition and have, many times, experienced this atmosphere or presence in the landscape that seems to exist beyond the everyday realm of my modern human cognizance.

In this “Out of the Wasteland” artwork I am striving to visually communicate this spirit or soul of a place that I have witnessed along with the human collective relationship with the landscape. I attempt to not only reproduce what I see through my eyes but also create a visual representation of what I experience. The artwork visually displays a personal sense of spiritual connection and an invisible and inaudible communication. It is created to honor all the living things that exist in every aspect of the landscape. Often I portray this life in human form in order to relay the precious and beautiful qualities of all life. On the whole, the imagery in the artwork is meant to represent a sense of life with no limitations of space and time, a sharing of spirit, mind and heart, a spiritual recognition and belonging, a joining in an ancient and eternal way.