TM7842 The Gang’s All Here, 36×36, oil on panel

Angle of Repose is a suggestive phrase with many meanings. The dictionary says angle is a measure of the amount of turning necessary to bring one line or plane into coincidence with another, and the precise viewpoint from which something is observed. My paintings are places – looked at intensely and over time. Looking becomes a meditation – a way to absorb the uniqueness of a place and make it part of me.  But angle includes the sense of bringing two things into alignment.  When one looks hard enough, the world enters a certain alignment with the viewer and the viewer is transformed by what is seen. Something happens.  The paintings are equal parts the specific place and its effect on me.

Repose – the other half of the phrase and my work. One meaning of repose is deposit. Another is to place confidence in, to trust, and also to reach a state of harmony in the arrangement of parts and colors. To paint a sense of harmony, one tries to find the harmony within oneself, and trust that whatever one sees will be influenced by that quality at the quiet center.

Angle of repose – the place at which action stops, stones settle, sand rests, water quietly disperses. By studying repose, one can intuit the action.  The two are inseparable.