Portals and Pathways

None of the hypotheses about the origins of UFO’s neatly explains the phenomenon of UFO’s. My father, J. Allen Hynek, studied UFO reports. He told me once that perhaps we humans don’t yet have the capacity to understand their nature, just like people in 1300 AD could not understand X-rays. One possibility he mentioned (among many) is that we co-exist in present time with UFO’s but aren’t capable of ‘seeing’ them most of the time, as if we occupy different parts of reality.

It’s tantalizing to think there may be openings around us that allow passage between realities. My Portals and Pathways series of paintings plays with that idea.

Core Samples

When geologists drill into the earth to examine the layers of rock built up over time, they bring up a long cylindrical tube of matter, a core sample. These tubular paintings play with the idea of a core sample right through the earth below and the sky above, or sideways through a forest, or through time itself.

Slice Paintings

When I was about seven I went with my father to the MacMillan Astronomical Observatory. That night he showed me the telescope and how he could open a small area of the observatory dome to focus on one narrow strip of night sky.

That image has stayed with me; these strip paintings play with seeing one slice of the sky, sea or land at a time.