ABOUT MY ART My Art I have been painting since the age of thirteen. I am now 66. Except for a few brief periods, I have never painted full-time. I spent a few years in a special art class in Junior High and took one class on color in college, but other than that I have had no art instruction to speak of. My career has been in insurance, tax, accounting, law and currently web design. When I was in Junior High, I decided that I wanted art to play a significant role in my life. I refused to paint pretty pictures. I wanted to paint what was in my head; unique paintings. By having never attempted to make a living from the sale of my art, I was able to keep it pure. I did not have to deal with teachers limiting my creativity or clients whose demands would potentially dull the edge of my creativity with their demands to conform. In time, I came to understand that metaphysical, spiritual, and some political themes would be the foundation storyboards of my art. In 1986, I finally found a style that suited me. On this website, you will find all the oil paintings that I have completed since 1986. In time, I will post all the art prior to 1986 of which there is not much. I painted and drew more in my head over the years as I tried to find a medium, method and subject matter that inspired me. Naked females In 2003, I began inserting naked females into my abstract paintings. The females I paint are naked, not nudes. For me traditional nudes are generally shown in provacative sexual poses (lying on a bed, sitting on a couch, taking a bath, sun bathing). The naked females in my oil paintings are surrounded by their multi-dimensional realities and dreamscapes. The metaphysical reality of the earth and the spiritual dimensions are the environment in which my naked females are portrayed. I do not feel that my nudes exploit women because, unlike traditional nudes, they are not provacative expositions of females as pleasure providers or possessions. They are simply without clothes. The women that I paint are engaged in a personal dreamscape. The many images and abstractions that create the dreamscape are all connected to the naked female. The female is naked because clothing would ground her in an earthly reality. Clothing would change the painting too much. (ie bikinis would have a significantly different affect than a formal dress. I don't want to skew my compositions around clothing.) In the dreamscape, they are free of this earthly reality as if they were in a spiritual body. Clothing would be confusing. I prefer women to men in these dreamscapes because the female represents creativity and the male represents destruction. Women represent peace and men represent chaos. I want to create art that brings people into contract with their spiritual nature. Each of my paintings tell a story. Mostly the story is about living in two realities at the same time: the physical reality and the spiritual reality; how all things change in this reality as well as how people navigate this metaphysical reality. I believe that true peace comes with never forgetting that we are an infinite immortal spiritual beings incarnate in a finite mortal body. When we begin to believe that this finite reality is the true reality, we become confused in the manifestations of the Infinite Oneness and lose our inner peace because we forget that all things that manifest from the Infinite Oneness in time disintegrate back into that Infinite Oneness. Dragons I also like to paint dragons. I consider dragons to be a secular representations a metaphysical spiritual (not religious) mindset. I see dragons as neither gods, nor as demonic. I see them as symbolically embodying all the good and bad in the tangible and intangible universe, but I try to keep a positive orientation. The dragons I paint represent the female’s interaction with her metaphysical reality of heaven and earth. Dragons are very colorful and I find bright colors uplifting. I also like birds, butterflies and flowers because their colors are uplifting. I do not enjoy painting dark or depressing pictures. Enough of that exists in the world already. The intent of my Art There is a story of a man who gave a sick friend a book of Zen stories. Later, he asked his recovered friend how he liked the books. His friend said that he did not understand the stories, but he felt better after reading them. This is my hope for my art. It is meant to communicate with one’s higher spiritual nature. It is abstract, which is the language of the subconscious mind and the soul. Though a person may not be able to bring to consciousness what he or she is feeling when contemplating my art, they will hopefully feel better during and after viewing it. The purpose of my Art I see a lot of my art in flashes, as dreams or visions. These are very short lived; generally the visions last only seconds. When I see a painting in my mind, it generally does not leave me. All the visions I have had of paintings are still very vivid to me. Unfortunately, it is impossible to paint the sheen, sparkle, and glow that I often see in the visions. Earth is just too dull a medium to allow for reproduction of the true colors in these visions. Most people who have Near Death Experiences report that it is not possible to communicate the beauty of the spiritual side of this reality. Sometimes I see a vision of a painting in my sleep and the painting begins to evolve and move. This is strange because it is not like a movie. The painting composition and colors just slowly change. I believe that all art is spiritual in nature and purpose. We have reached a point where every absurd, banal exhibit has been declared art. I do like the idea of really good ‘bad art’. Art has gone from the photo real art of Vermeer to the Abstractions of Jackson Pollock. The art of painting completely disintegrated with Jackson Pollock. So everything that could be painted began with the first Vermeer and terminated with the last Jackson Pollock deconstruction. All future paintings will reside between the art of Vermeer and the art of Jackson Pollock. For me, any new painting can be measured as to how much it is a degeneration of a Vermeer and how reconstructed from a Pollock painting. My objective is to turn the clock back (from the freedom of Jackson Pollock), so to speak, and create spiritual art. Not religious art with scenes of Jesus and the Old Testament prophets, though those in time will be forthcoming, but spiritual regarding the connection between human beings and their infinite, immortal souls and God. We are all, for the most part, confused in the manifestations of this finite, mortal realm where we have temporarily bound our infinite, immortal soul to a mortal finite limited human body. The body will die and decay. The soul continues. I don't consider my art to be surreal. It is a dreamscape and coherent in relation to the naked female's vision. Surrealism does not have to be coherent and to me generally strives to not be coherent. What I create are dreamscapes that are multi dimensional metaphysical storyboards from the soul of the female (or females) in my paintings. There is nothing like my art. It represents a lot of genres but there is no genre that it clearly belongs to or dominates any painting. My art can best be categorized as a combination of Visionary Art and Outsider Art. "Visionary art as defined for the purposes of the American Visionary Art Museum refers to art produced by self-taught individuals, usually without formal training, whose works arise from an innate personal vision that revels foremost in the creative act itself." However, my art does not look like typical visionary art. Those labeled as Outsider artists tend to have little or no contact with the mainstream art world or art institutions. Often, outsider art illustrates unconventional ideas, elaborate fantasy worlds or extreme mental states. I have never used hallucinogenic drugs and seldom drink alcohol. I had a career as a lawyer. I now own a web design business. I do not live in a fantasy world. I have no mental illness. I am an advocate for peace but not a pacifist. Therefore, my art should be categorized as Visionary|Outsider Art". As a dreamscape, no concept of composition or content or color really applies. A dreamscape has no rules of color or composition. It is what is dreamed. So I do not believe any criticism of the painting positive or negative applies. How can you criticize how the conscious mind at sleep constructs a dreamscape. I believe the art is attractive and significant. These are the criteria for true masterpieces and therefore what I stive to create. Both are intended. I do not paint pretty pictures. I do not paint the same composition twice even though I do use some of the same ideas from one painting to another. I am trying to rise to the top of the art world pyramid as an artist and not trying to create a lot of pretty pictures. There is no way you can predict what my next composition will be after looking at all the paintings that came before. You will know the art will include a naked female dreamer (because females are archetypal creationist), it will not be erotic generally speaking, it will be mostly primary and secondary colors, it will be 85% hardline, it will be in some sense an spiritual storyboard. These things will always be present but the storyboard composition will not be predictable. I have included partial explanations of many of my paintings and placed the narratives with each corresponding painting on my website. My art is created to be marketed through an auction house like Christie's or Sothby's or sold directly to a major museum. If I dont achieve this level of marketing, I will in time set up a John WorldPeace museum and exhibit it there. Therefore, it is unlikely that those who are not at the top of the pyramid of selling and collecting art masterpieces or even speculating in art, and therefore for the most part are extremely knowledgeable about art masterpieces, will understand or appreciate my art. Further and sadly, just the fact that my art incorporates naked females alone classifies it as degenerate or worse for most Americans and fundamental religionists. That is fine. These people are not my targeted buyers. The originals of my art are not for sale. What is for sale is a very high quality signed and numbered prints with a provenance on canvas (or paper or ink, or acrylics etc) that if viewed from 6 feet away you will not be able to tell it from the original. The painting could be printed in 1/6 scale without losing any detail or manifest any pixelating or blurring.   John WorldPeace March 6, 2012, September 23, 2014, October 12, 2014   THE WORLDPEACE BEACON (I wrote this 5 days after I changed my name and it is still true as a definition of my intent in this life.) I have a dream that all the World abides in peace. I have a dream that I and my colors travel the world path creating beacons of WorldPeace. I have a dream that all the angels of the heavens and the God of all the universe travel by my side as I carry the light of love and love of peace to each and every mountain, valley, sea and plain, to each and all that travel the blessed earth. One simple man WorldPeace; One simple message WorldPeace I have a dream that with each passing, with each creating, a beacon of love and understanding is forever established, forever ignited, forever to radiate Peace and Light. One simple man WorldPeace; one simple message WorldPeace. I have a dream that all that is pure in love and light comes continuously to touch each tiny beacon, to add Light to light, to make the earth a beacon in the infinite heavens that radiates into the hearts and minds of all of humanity; Peace and Light. I have a dream that all who come, that all who are called to each tiny beacon, receive the infinite gifts of God; wellness and love, peace and understanding. I have a dream that all who come, receive; each according to his need, each according to her love, so that as they travel one by one their separate paths each carries the love and peace unconditionally given to each and every vibration of the earth; until that never ending day arrives when each and every one, when all in all, forever flows, in love's most precious gift WorldPeace. John WorldPeace April 6, 1988