I am fascinated by portals, doorways between differing realities. Portals appear in many forms: windows, mirrors, paintings, books, imaginings, desires.
A recent gallery show featured several paintings from my “Gorilla Portals” series. At the reception, I was asked repeatedly to discuss the thread of meanings in the series, and I failed utterly each time, prattling on about how gorillas had always fascinated me, and what wonderful beings they are, etc. All of this was true, but entirely off point. The real answer is that these apes and their portals are metaphors for us. We build our lives, adapting to circumstances, adjusting to necessary realities, but our souls yearn to know more. We yearn for the magic of portals to allow us a glimpse of other realities, as well as the possibility, should we grasp it, to escape the here and the now and the “THIS” of our lives. This doesn’t imply that we’re unhappy or discontented, but only that we’re circumscribed. Often we glimpse another reality, and choose to stay where we are, but at least we’ve seen another universe, and have been subtly but irrevocably changed by that awareness that there are other realities than ours.
For this series, I work from my own photographs. Sadly, all of the apes accessible to me are in zoos. I am simultaneously grateful for the opportunity to view and photograph them, and a bit heartbroken to see these close cousins in captivity. They are intelligent, self-aware beings, and they know they are captive. These paintings imagine for them multiple worlds, and portals for coming and going.
Archival, “Fine Art” prints are available by request. Contact me for pricing and availability.