Existing comment:
Personal Vision
The artists represented here explore complex personal visions. Each has delved deeply into a privately defined project -- variously exploring belief, identity, spirituality, and communication.
Achilles Rizzoli put his skills as an architectural draftsman to work in a series of intricate renderings that portray people he knew as elegant buildings or utopian cities. Visually and psychologically complex, Rizzoli's "portraits" speak volumes about their creator -- a man who largely kept to himself.
J. B. Murray saw art as an active engagement with God. He believed that his scrawling script evidenced a spiritual message from the divine, positioning him as a conduit between heaven and earth. Charlie Willeto also interpreted his art as a communication with the divine. Willeto believed that the purpose of his carvings was not to convey the word of God to others on earth, but was his own form of negotiation with the Navajo deities as he sought to help his tribe transition into a modern era.
Dan Miller uses painting and drawing to express memories, thoughts, and feelings that he is unable to voice with conventional language. Martín Ramírez, who was also challenged by verbal expression, used drawing to sustain a sense of self, endure confinement, and chart an epic journey that entailed loss of home, family, and freedom. |