HOWARD NEUFELD, artist

The Chaos: a subjective connection of Process as image formation, chance and improvisation.

For me there has always been something magical about the picture plane and the structure, i.e., the surface upon which we apply the paint. It can be a sort of window we look thru, where our perceptions are transformed by illusion. Or, it can exist as a real physical object where perceptions are based on the reality of the structure's surface and the materials applied to it. In my paintings, any physical characteristics are built into the Structure. This phase has its own creative methods including some that are conscious as well as those who's purpose is to open opportunity for the sub-conscious.

If the relationship of the picture plane and illusion are magical, the brush is truly a magic wand that can create images in so many different ways. The one I prefer to use in forming an illusion is based on what I call Process. This Process is a search without intent, i.e., if I do this and then this in this way, what will happen? Is the result successful or unsuccessful as an illusion? By illusion I mean a visual phenomena that affects perception and has the effect of an illusion as in realism. Something about it "feels" familiar, perhaps only a trait of something, something I might have seen before even if not specifically identifiable. It may trigger a reminder, memory or recognition as an image however unintentional. I'm not referring to pareidolia.

In the "Mandala Series" this often creates different visual effects or visual phenomena in an object-space and not a specific form. This can evolve into a kind of technique by seeing how a given Process resulted in an illusionistic outcome; although I can't duplicate them exactly, I can get similarities. This is because I'm using a subjective Process to create a non-objective illusion.

More recently, I've started to Process non-objective illusions (using white paint over black or dark blue) in what is called the "field." In Quantum Mechanics on a sub-atomic scale, energy in motion creates particles as well as particles transforming into energy; using black and white paint - I feel the absence of color allows the imagination more freedom. As this Process evolves, I'm also trying to make sense of what I see or what's becoming visual in the Process - "the illusion" - creating a visual effect without pre-meditation or intent on my part, at least as mush as I can do that; one that is improvised via simultaneous-receptivity.

As found in "Concerning the Spiritual in Art" - Wassily Kandinsky "form remains abstract, describing only non-material, spiritual entities. Such non-material entities, with life and value as such, are a circle, a triangle, and a rhombus, etc. many of them so complicated as to have no mathematical denomination."

As found in "Reconsidering the Spiritual in Art" - a paper by Donald Kuspit: "'Improvisation' with a root word meaning 'not to foresee' is not the same as accidental or spontaneous - which is the way Kandinsky's work is usually understood - by chance or by impulse and why 'improvisation' is more enlivening than either - Kandinsky's whole point is that art has to be inwardly alive - since the results of chance and impulse can be foreseen, however not precisely predicted."

 Illusionism + Imagination = the Perception:

We are hard-wired to make sense of what we see (or perceive) - a kind of reversal of pure imagination. I believe that the two-dimensional picture plane, a more or less flat surface, and its connection to illusionism is also part of this "hard-wiring" and has an intrinsic relationship with our capacity to perceive, if you will, the ability of "imaginative perception." This means that in the act of perceiving these illusions, the viewer's imagination is called upon to try to make sense of them. For the paintings, this is the key - where illusionism, a typical method to achieve Realism, and imagination, come together as "image;" what triggers the perceptual experience by describing what I call a non-objective illusion or visual phenomena within a fluid and aesthetic approach to Structure (not necessarily Order). Hopefully, the artist and the viewer can share a sensual experience that can also be thoughtful.

When used, color is also improvised, not spontaneous, random, or accidental. After one of these visual effects is discovered I can, if I feel strongly about the resulting illusion, use the same Process and apply it to some other area or even another painting. This uses the probability that by using the same Process, I will get similar results, however, each effort is also subjectively unique.

It has been said that perception is a form of meditation. For myself there's something very magically different about perceiving an illusion in paint over a more direct perception of real forms in real space. In paint, these illusions pull you into a moment, one that can be visually examined as the eye moves around, exploring the perception itself - stretching the time of the moment.

Levels of Consciousness in the Creative Act:

As found in "An Art of Our Own"; Lipsey; page 25: "Carl Jung offers some explanation as to how the levels of consciousness work in the creative act, specifically 'consciousness,' 'pre-subconscious or pre-unconscious' and what he refers to as the 'subconscious or unconscious.' Art is capable of reflecting all three levels of being. The first on a superficial level, the second a deeper level of personal hopes and fears, and the third, the deepest level of which we often know not what we say - nor what we say through works of art. The beauty or insight that enters the art did through 'receptiveness' rather than control. The first two have to do with 'style' - the way the artist presents form and color and will respond to the deeper subjectivity of the artist. The third level can never be assumed. It is the level  of intuition, perception, sheer inspired guesses, and blessed certainties regarding essential things: How the world is put together, the laws around us and within us, the relationships that connect us to others and the world, and also the pressures that tear us away.

For the deeper spirits that practice abstract art, this is their field of predilection. Their work is also an image of underlying realities - personal realities in the sense that they are matters of experience - also transpersonal realities felt to be greater than ones own life and to characterize some sizable portion of the world at large.

The third level of meaning flowing from the truly inner part of our most inner lives is not reliable under conscious control. The most moving abstract work resonates - in Kandinsky's terms, reveals an 'inner sound' - in such a way that it exposes the viewer to an unexpectedly large world of meaning and intelligent feeling."