Barb Stahl

“As a visual artist, I am deeply fascinated by the intimate conversation that takes place between consciousness and creativity.  Having explored this fundamental dialogue through my efforts as a painter, insights from the new physics of cosmology continue to inform my process.  Biocentric Landscapes assumes at its point of departure the idea that mind is the fabric of the universe and that consciousness is the vehicle through which our world comes to realize itself; these ideas are the ultimate reference for my work. With my canvases I initiate my process within a framework of crosshatch drip patterns. These provide the matrix upon and from which my imagery will emerge.  Much like warp and weft on a loom, they are an operative symbol of the cosmic thread.  Like an implicit meaning, the thread represents the connectivity of all things in the universe: it allows content to emerge. The thread patterns form a grid that weaves in and out of the paintings bringing forth landscapes and other abstracted imagery.   Like streams of consciousness, many of my canvases are worked and re-worked over time leaving behind submerged previous histories.  With each new incarnation these ghosts emerge from behind the layers of paint to join with the stream of images currently taking place on the surface.”

Collection