Baby as symbol (2025)

These small paintings are about my speculations of the baby as an archetypal symbol. I try to express in paint how I see this conceptual understanding.

A baby can signify the birth of hope and renewal as a fresh start also heralding a divine presence of significant change. A baby is vulnerable and fragile and as a metaphor suggests early stages of ideas, projects, and a new journey ahead. The symbol of a baby embodies growth and transformation as untapped possibilities await. Care, patience, and faith in the unknown is needed when one holds pure and unformed essence in one's hands. 

These paintings are expressive and abstract portraits focusing on distortion, rawness, and spontaneity. The original paintings were gestural and done with an intense feel. Red accents attempt to draw the viewers' attention.

My work has an emphasis on symbolism and fragmented forms of the human face.   I align myself with contemporary expressionism entering into a broader conversation about the human condition and post modern identity. 

The original paintings are now Canadian Stamps. Cool eh?

These paintings are figurative and symbolic speculations of how an experience happens.

I take that an experience is a cascade of sensory perceptions, cognitions, emotions, and memories that eventually lead to behavioral actions and behaviours. External stimuli from the environment create internal processes in the brain. The mind interprets and remembers. Decisions are made how to act. How one comes to choose is many times outside one’s awareness of all cognitive and emotional processes in one's mind. The mind encodes a short-term experience and converts it into long term memory. One’s experiences contribute to ongoing learning and adaptation. 

The influence of the environment is the context in which an experience happens. However, one’s cultural background, personal histories, and preferences shape how an experience is interpreted.

These paintings  are abstractions of the human brain.  A neuron is the functional unit of the brain. Neurotransmitters and neuroreceptors are integral components of the brain's intricate communication systems. These networks play vital roles in regulating one's moods, cognitions, behaviours, and other physiological functions.

The balance and function of neurotransmitters and neuroreceptors are critical for maintaining optimal brain function and mental health. Understanding the complex interplay between neurotransmitters and neuroreceptors provides insights into the many networks operating in one's brain.

With these paintings I visualize the essential parts of the brain. How the brain makes mind is another landscape awaiting to explore in future paintings. The human mind is indeed THE area of human achievements, failures, possibilities, and diseases. How the human mind interacts within our culture, and vice versa, continues to intrigue me.