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Painting Words

I remember most clearly from the circus the time I almost fell, the time my partner did fall, and the time I swam in a California river, its water like a melted diamond.

The paintings are about levels of sensation, about fear, and about transformation. To move from one state of being to another you must unravel the first. An old story says that the gate to enlightenment is guarded by two demons: Contradiction and Confusion. On a two dimensional surface one is confined to and liberated by illusion. This is the place to make fantastic contradictions. To walk on water. To speak of the unspeakable.

Making art has run with me as early as I can remember. There are drawings I did as a small child that I have distinct memories of making, the importance of the decisions within their making being as pivotal and as inherent as when I make them now. Experiencing the world as an diorama of visual interaction has been a constant. The pure magic of that has never dimmed, re-taking its shape through the strangeness of adolescence, art school and circus performing. As a center to a world that carves at one's psyche, the art remains steadfast as the Tin Soldier, as crazily canted against life's cultural expectations.

Walking through my garden on a path of creek stones among a jungled concoction of flowers I go to the studio. The short journey has an aesthetic history that joins movement, time and vision, connects through my feet and eyes and out past where my hands have worked to the tangled woods and the streets that lead away.

Everything is a story. Everywhere I look is a perfect painting, even my own imperfect ones. Its an unending treasure chest.

My paintings are all stories. Some are short, some gothic, some science fiction and many pure, internal, dream-opera. They are all about color and unfolding the origami of the heart.

They are stories for lookers. For eyes that are hungry. They are extravagant gifts.

-Mia Wolff