Grateful Notices: Saccades VIII, oil on canvas, 40 x 40 inches

Exhibited: Renjeau Gallery, Natick, MA

Private collection

About the Saccades Series shown here:

"Since the late 19th century, researchers have been aware of the phenomenon of saccades, the rapid movement of the eye as we shift our attention from one thing to another. As a result, vision itself is discontinuous. WAbout this artwork:

I've been doing trees for years and they continue to inspire me in a variety of ways with no end in sight. With this Saccades series, much is abstracted and the forest motif becomes a place of patterns, color and light effects.

The idea was to develop a new way of seeing the forest. There are layers of forest material, tree trunks primarily, but the types of trees or even the time of day is secondary to the patterns and colors in this series of oils. There is something to see everywhere and we are compelled to move around the image, enjoying all the delicious elements that create the forest.

These works take on a life of their own and they make a lot of demands: more shadow, color, light, mass, brights, blacks - in an endless dialog until they are finally in balance with all of their complexity.

The Saccades works are designed without a singular focal point. This leads the eye to explore the equally engaging parts of the artwork.

e construct a “map of reality” from saccades much as a film editor puts together a scene from individual camera takes." From an article by the film maker Errol Morris, NY Times.