Francis Berry
Creation orients my abiding commitment to upflift being with art. Painting suggests kaleidoscopic possibilities. Composition climaxes when color and form enthrall the eye. Respponding to painterly serendipity or "the aesthetic of incidentals," as the late Richard Diebenkorn once remarked, leads to alchemy. Eventually layers of addition and substraction resolve when pigment transforms light into meaning. One's art experience may prove to be timely, transformative, even disruptive, and so equally worthwhile. Attaining these tantalizing prospects instills unending inspiration. In northern California, driving down from the Berkeley hills feels like taking a deep plunge into the San Francisco Bay. Featured center left of "Fireflight," as the "I" of "Egalite," rises the abstracted Transamerica Pyramid landmark. Rather than vanishing at the horizon, the tower's steep perspective fuses with infinity at the zenith. The resultant skyward ascent symbolizes the visionary edge of San Francisco. Located in the heart of the city, the Transamerica Pyramid icon also functions here to anchor and situate this epic reinterpretation of French Revolutionary ideals with a California twist. As it goes with "Grit," poetry amplifies painting, and painting amplifies poetry. Like a freight train moving through new scenery, painting pulls the work visually while its complementary haiku pushes it verbally. Emergent synergy powers both along. The El Greco Fine Arts Award further expands the journey. Thank you. All on board? Please enjoy "Grit." San Francisco grins. Chill fog fluffs up Golden Gate. Famed bay, love be gray.
"Fireflight" acrylic gouache and ink, 11" x 6.5", 2023
