Unity 1-3
36″ x 48″
91.44 x 121.92 cm
Size: 36" x 48" in. (91.44 x 121.92 cm)
Medium: Oil and Gold Leaf on Canvas
Year: 2020
The Unity series is best described by a short story found in the introduction to author Don Miguel Ruiz’s book The Four Agreements. Three thousand years ago there was a [man] just like you and me who lived near a city surrounded by mountains. The [man] was studying to become a [shaman], to learn knowledge of his ancestors, but he didn’t completely agree with everything he was learning. In his heart, he felt there must be something more. One day, as he slept in a cave, he dreamed that he saw his own body sleeping. He came out of the cave on the night of a full moon. The sky was clear, and he could see millions of stars. Then something happened inside of him that changed his life forever. He looked at his hands, he felt his body, and he heard his own voice say, “I am made of light; I am made of stars.” He looked at the stars again, and he realized that it’s not the stars that create light, but rather light that creates the stars. “Everything is made of light,” he said, “and the space in-between isn’t empty.” And he knew that everything that exists is one living being, and that light is the messenger of life, because it is alive and contains all information. Then he realized that although he was made of stars, he was not those stars. “I am in-between those stars,” he thought. So he called the stars the tonal and the light between the stars the nagual, and he knew that what created the harmony and space between the two is Life or Intent. Without Life, the tonal and the nagual could not exist. Life is the force of the absolute, the supreme, the Creator who creates everything. This is what he discovered: Everything in existence is a manifestation of the one living being we call God. Everything is God. And he came to the conclusion that human perception is merely light perceiving light. He also saw that matter is a mirror – everything is a mirror that reflects light and creates images of that light – and the world of illusion, the Dream, is just like smoke which doesn’t allow us to see what we really are. “The real us is pure love, pure light,” he said. It is this description of Life and our existence that inspires the Unity series. I am interested in the way simple geometry can form an infinite number of new structures or illusions through observing patterns of light, the space between shapes, and the harmonious balance of the two. Each piece can be seen symbolically as a celebration of the creation we are all a part of and a lens through which we may explore a deeper sense of our existence.