Exhibitions > Nurturing Nature

The Innate and Intuitive Reflex
The Innate and Intuitive Reflex
Oil on Plywood
6' x 10'
2011

The Innate and Intuitive Reflex is my reflection upon the reasons behind history repeating itself. Whether it is a result of involuntary decisions like: a reflex, a birth-trait of the species, fate or destiny, or whether it results from learned behavior. The myriad of knots in the plywood panel produced the shape which represents cyclical movement, spiraling and a foreshortened DNA double helix. It speaks of the decisions made which seem to me to be unconscious and at the same time informed by something that is unknown and beyond me.
I relate this to flocking patterns of birds because the flocking behavior is an innate response of the individual bird and also a group behavior which requires an intuitive reaction based on observation of the movements of the flock to which the bird belongs. This cyclical movement of the form reminds me of similar movements and forms created by flocks of birds. The image grew from this visual relationship to the form and the patterns within the form. The overall shape refers to the flock, the painted elements refer to being within the movement of the flock. The painting is of birds within a flock moving through the cycle of a day beginning and ending at dawn in the lower left.