The Without a Net Paintings.

My paintings are self-portraits depicting my own mind states. Each piece is a character designed to personify my ever-changing thought patterns, habits, and perspectives. These individual parts of my personality are painted as they come up in my life in an attempt to be more honest with myself and shed an introspective light on my foibles, aspirations, and secrets. They reveal human attributes that notionally relate to everyone. My hope is that viewers will be called to embrace their own vulnerability and humanness.

 In many cultures and religions around the world, animals have been used to represent ideas, deities and demons, and human traits—a wide range of inanimate phenomenon. Taking cues from these traditions, I came up with characters for the story of my own consciousness.  

 It is intended that viewers create their own stories from the paintings. Fifty-five of the paintings have been reproduced as a deck of cards to better facilitate interaction with others. They have become part an interactive project aimed at drawing the viewer into their own mind states and worldviews. As prompts for self-introspection, they take on an infinite variety of new meanings, offering insight into the inner life. As creative prompts they are easy story starters. More uses are listed in the Ebook that accompanies the deck.

Click here for a deeper look into the creative process of the paintings. (Put your feet up. It’s thorough.)

A full gallery of images of the paintings can be found on my gallery website, reddotgallery.com. To purchase, contact dori@reddotgallery.com.