ARTIST STATEMENT
I've been an artist my whole life. As a child I was always making things. At sometime or other I've probably experimented with all the art mediums. Today I'm primarily an abstract painter and identify with the abstract expressionists.
Objective reality inspires me. However, I have no interest in making a picture of something. What excites me is color and paint and the surprises that happen in the art making process. Pastels are a favorite medium because I like "painting" with my fingers - pushing around the pastel dust. Hundreds of pastel sticks surround me as I work. It's quick, direct and easy to use outdoors. No need for brushes, water, or mixing - I just grab the color I need. Lately I've been painting with acrylics on 3' by 4'canvas. I love paint. It teases my sense of touch so I end up painting with my fingers as much as with brushes. The fluidity makes it quick and changeable. Paint seems to have a mind of its own - a mysterious life force that activates and combines innate properties resulting in the unexpected. That's a big attraction for me.
Standing before a blank canvas surrounded by my tools and colors, I begin to journey. A seed thought is my springboard - a spark that gets me going. Once begun, the process generates itself. It's as though a great mystical being flows through me onto canvas. I never feel alone while painting. I sense invisible helpers as I glide along the fine thread of awareness between control and reckless abandon. I'm both the doer and the witness. Totally in the moment, yet anticipating every move - sometimes, several moves ahead. I'm open to all impressions, impulses, recollections as I quickly, but gently, choose what to use and what to let go. It's a mystical time teeming with coexisting opposites. Complex, because every level of awareness is lively in a single moment. Simple, because it seems thought-free - automatic. My focused attention is like the pin-point of a laser beam. Yet I feel expanded as I float in the loving stillness of waves moving over, around and through me. Painting is a non-linear, non-discursive language that wakes up every level of awareness. It prompts and allows expressions of multiple reasoning in just one single stroke. Isn't that amazing? Just thinking about it gets me going... So this is the way I paint and the only kind of art making process I'm interested in doing.

RESUME: http://jerifelixresume2008.blogspot.com/

STATEMENT FOR "MEDITATIVE"
show at Feature Inc.
530 West 25th Street,Chelsea
NYC
August & September, 2005

A BRIGHT GRASS GREEN CURVILINEAR FORM SKIPS GENTLY ACROSS THE "SCREEN" BEHIND MY CLOSED EYES............ I AM MEDITATING.
I'VE PRACTICED THE TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION PROGRAM FOR
A HALF HOUR EVERY MORNING AND EVENING FOR THE PAST 35 YEARS.

THE GREEN VISION COMES WITH FEELINGS OF DELIGHT, YET IT'S SOLEMN TOO. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT LIFE EXPERIENCE (IF ANY) IT'S ASSOCIATED WITH - THAT DOESN'T MATTER. WHAT DOES MATTER IS THE VISION ITSELF BECAUSE IT FEELS LIKE AN OFFERING. IT'S IMPORTANT. IT'S THE BEGINNING OF MY ART MAKING - THE EMBRYO OF A FUTURE PAINTING. I CALL THESE EXPERIENCES "SEEDS". THEY COME IN MANY FORMS; VISIONS, THOUGHTS, SENSATIONS, EMOTIONS. WHATEVER THE FORM, "SEEDS" ALWAYS MANIFEST INNOCENTLY AND EFFORTLESSLY IN THE DEEP SILENCE OF MY MEDITATIONS.

LATER IN THE DAY IT'S TIME TO PAINT. I BEGIN BY RECALLING A "SEED". EACH ONE IS A KEY THAT UNLOCKS A SPECIFIC CHANNEL OF AWARENESS. THE PHYSICAL ACT OF PAINTING JOGGLES THIS AWARENESS. ENLIVENED, IT MOVES - UNFOLDS - REVEALS ITS MYSTERIES. ALL MYSTERIES TRANSLATE INTO BANDS OF COLOR WHEN ENERGY TRAVELS FROM MY MIND TO MY FINGERS AND ONTO THE PAPER.

STRIPES, AS VISUAL LANGUAGE, OFFER ME WHOLISTIC FREEDOM TO EXPRESS EVERYTHING WITH COLOR. THE FOCUS IS INTENSE, YET RELAXED - PRECISE, YET EASY. I SIMPLY ALLOW ALL MY ATTENTION TO GENTLY FLOW ALONG THIS FINE THREAD OF AWARENESS. THERE IS NO EFFORT FROM MY SIDE. THE FLOW IS SELF-GENERATING. WHEN THE FLOW STOPS, THE PAINTING IS
DONE.

RESUME: http://jerifelixresume2008.blogspot.com/