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Whitney, Matthew - VM - Matthew Whitney
Matthew Whitney: Grief
A Greater Reality
by Matthew Whitney
I quietly go to the studio as a way to be present, seeking a liminal space in the hope of finding commune with a reality that must be greater than the events and circumstances that construct our surface human narrative. This may in other traditions be referred to as “the thin place,” but I hope that there is not so much of a distance between transcendence and immanence, that the differences are perhaps wafer-thin or even interchangeable, if only we could look and see.
Do tragedy and injustice cloud our sight or make it clearer? Perhaps feelings of grief and sorrow, undesirable when they are present, are the surest indicators that human existence does encompass a greater reality. That they can serve as signposts and way-finders as one navigates this clouded corporeal journey, where one can catch a glimpse of clarity and understanding, and can thus clumsily orient us toward them. Grief inherently contains fragments of hope.
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Matthew Whitney: Grief, 2008.
Matthew Whitney is a Seattle-based artist, working primarily in oil paints. He received his BA in Art from Whitworth University in Spokane, WA, and exhibits his paintings throughout the Pacific Northwest. Using expressionistic imagery, he works with spiritual and religious themes, stemming from his own beliefs but also encouraging the viewer to create unique connections between the work and their own personal experience. "My oil paintings are visual meditations on life, creation and faith. I want my work to be a visual language that communicates to the viewer the spiritual and mysterious elements of our reality around us." www.matthewwhitney.com
ArtWay Visual Meditation May 29, 2011