Chaos , destruction and reconstruction comprised an essential experience of my childhood in Germany during and after World War II. This caused a deep longing in me to bring order into disorder, clarity into confusion, stillness to quiet the inside and outside noise.

Early memories – often mysterious and, I believe, unconscious- find expression in my abstract paintings. Eschewing a predetermined concept, I mostly begin  with vigorous brushstrokes, with movement and gestures. Merging marks, lines, textures, shapes and colors, I work in many layers, moving paint around, scrubbing off and out, scratching and wiping away, generating chaos to find order, destroying to build up again. Each painting undergoes multiple metamorphoses, following traces of the past, of memories and dreams, of feelings and sensations.

I like to compare this ongoing process with nature’s cycles of birth, death and rebirth, of creation, destruction and reconstruction. The best is to step out of my own way, be in a state of no-mind and to let happen what wants to express itself naturally.

Photos above: Steve Mann (blackboxphoto.info)