New Website

Diane McGregor, Terrain 5, oil on canvas, 12x12 inches

I am very pleased to announce that I have designed and created a new website for my grid paintings.  I feel this new site enhances the minimalist aesthetic of my work.  Please take a look at dianemcgregor.com.  There is a scroll bar at the bottom with featured paintings, and you can click on the thumbnail above the scroll bar to get large versions of each painting.  Arrows to the right and left of the enlarged image will point you to the next painting in the portfolio. There is a place on the contact page to share your email address with me if you are interested in being on my mailing list.  Thank you!

Vibrations of the Infinite

Using the outer light, return to insight.  ~ Tao Te Ching

Diane McGregor, Vibration II, graphite on paper, 2x6 inches

 

 Those spaces between, 

however narrow, 

finite but possessing 

the clearest sense of infinitude, 

they reverberate, 

separate, 

clarify. 

The spaces between seconds, 

in negative rhythm, 

the substance of time. 

Those moments between 

glances,

 between the connection 

and the shuttering of eyes.  

~ Michael Boiano

True Meditation

Diane McGregor, Meditation I, graphite on paper, 6.5 x 3 inches

"In true meditation the emphasis is on being awareness: not on being aware of objects, but on resting as primordial awareness itself.... Silence and stillness are not states and therefore cannot be produced or created. Silence is the non-state in which all states arise and subside.... Silence itself is the eternal witness without form or attributes. As you rest more profoundly as the witness, all objects take on their natural functionality, and awareness becomes free of the mind's compulsive contractions and identifications, and returns to its natural non-state of Presence." ~ Adyashanti, from True Meditation.

 

Surfacing

Diane McGregor, Surfacing I, graphite on paper, 2.25x6 inches

Diane McGregor, Surfacing II, graphite on paper, 2.25x6 inches

I am working on several new series of panoramic abstractions.  Although the image says to the viewer's brain, "This is landscape," in reality these images are coming from deep within me and don't reference any landscape objective. These two drawings are part of a series of 10.  I'm also working on several oil paintings within this panoramic format.  One series currently in progress consists of 5 oil on canvas paintings measuring 12x36 inches each.  I'm very excited about the spiritual and psychological potential of this work. I am allowing the images to emerge from a still point of concentration. Continuing with my exploration of the grid,  the images are built up from horizontal and vertical strokes of graphite. A friend called this work "silent grids," and I rather like that definition.  The underlying structure of the imagery is a grid, yet the end result is very fluid and organic. I am using the same technique with the oil paintings as well -- each layer of paint is added by applying vertical and horizontal brushstrokes, evoking light and shadow, form and substance, without leaving any boundary traces or definitive edges.

Poetry, Time, and a New Year

 

Emanation III, oil on canvas, 29 x 22 inches,  © Diane McGregor

What we look for beyond seeing
And call the unseen,
Listen for beyond hearing
And call the unheard,
Grasp for beyond reaching
And call the withheld,
Merge beyond understanding
In a oneness
Which does not merely rise and give light,
Does not merely set and leave darkness,
But forever sends forth a succession of living things as mysterious
As the unbegotten existence to which they return.
That is why men have called them empty phenomena,
Meaningless images,
In a mirage
With no face to meet,
No back to follow.
Yet one who is anciently aware of existence
Is a master of every moment,
Feels no break since time beyond time
In the way life flows.

                ~ Lao Tzu, Number 14, Tao Te Ching (translated by Witter Bynner)


I enjoy collecting different translations of the Tao Te Ching.  I am always interested in how various scholars reveal the hidden gems in this widely published classic. I recently came across this translation by Witter Bynner, and I loved it.  I was surprised to learn that he was a Santa Fe poet.  He was famous for hosting large parties attended by artistic and literary celebrities such as D.H. Lawrence, Willa Cather, Ansel Adams, Georgia O'Keeffe, Robert Frost, Aldous Huxley, and W.H. Auden, among many others.  His historic home is now open to the public as a bed and breakfast inn located in downtown Santa Fe.

Wishing all of my readers a transformative 2014!