The Journey series has been revealing itself to me slowly, over time.  The first journey painting, “Leaving The City”, was small and was painted in 1999 from memory.  Though I had made an earlier series of road images from 1984-1987, this one little painting seemed to resonate deeply with people, so much so that I kept looking at it again and again with the hope that I would somehow fathom its mysteries.  Sometimes the only way to understand a painting is to paint more and see what shows up, and so the Journey series was begun. Most of the Journey images are not places you will find on a printed map.  They derive from dream or memory or some other realm.  From the starting point of the dream or memory I discover the painting as I paint it. 

Journey has another aspect in these paintings.  In 2002, I began study with a shamanic healer and guide.  In the language of shamanism, all life is dreaming.  All dreams are real.  The shaman journeys to many dreamtimes to do work of healing, learning, receiving and offering guidance.  Shamanism is not a religion  It is a spiritual practice, a discipline and a life tool.  I find much delight and satisfaction in this practice, as it would seem that it lives in the same world of rich metaphor as that from which my art derives.  It is becoming a deep source of insight and comfort for me.