My life is dedicated to creating, specifically to the expression of the sacred impulse at the heart of existence. Making art is a vocation, in the true meaning of that word, a calling from the depth of being that directs all aspects of my life in ways that serve a deeper vision. My spiritual journey and my creative journey are conjoined, and I have unswervingly followed the interweaving of those currents with the deepest commitment throughout my entire life.The impulse to create, to realize the voice in the soul of the self and of existence, motivates all my choices. The iconology of my art serves that impulse and that voice, and the iconography flows and follows from that iconology, creating a locus of sacred space.
A strong sense of place is essential to my art. Since moving to Alaska in 1983, much of my imagery arises from a profound connection with northern sensibility, motivated by the presence of a northern landscape and the mythopoetic encoding of the human and animal presence that life in the arctic engenders. I seek to express that sensibility in new and experimental ways, both in media and content, challenging both myself and the viewer-participant to look at arctic imagery through an expanded lens of conscious awareness, accessing an encoding beyond the local and immediate to what is fundamental, essential, and enduring in the universal.
Concomitantly, I consider myself to be a citizen-artist of the world, reaching out ito diverse cultures, countries, and world views. One way of realizing this is through participation in the various artist-in-residence positions I have served. To these residencies, most recently as Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome, I bring an expanded Alaskan based sensibility into international venues, and take away a melding into myself of all that other cultures have to offer. This yeasts new modes of expression in my art, expands the possibilities of further development, and establishes interpersonal and lasting relationships with a wide community of artists, thinkers, and seekers. Another way of establishing bridges to a broader world community is through exhibiting my art in venues both national and international. By sharing a vision, that vision enters into a larger holographic paradigm that seeds a whole beyond and deeper than individual expression.
See www.jogoing.net for CV, art examples,and contact information.
