THAT ELUSIVE MOMENT
Every piece of art originates, is caused by, and is executed to achieve a moment of wonder, reflecting the breathtaking beauty of the natural world. Using bold, striking imagery, I work in partnership with nature to create works that will halt, provoke, and energize.
As a young man, troubled and resistant, I focused on the dark side of the universal Yin-Yang equation. I lived in, created from, and contributed to negativity and struggle. My work was violent, sad, alone, and full of anguish. I surrounded myself with people of the same mindset, amplifying that state of mind and limiting my potential. In my early twenties, I found myself at a breaking point, and lucky for me, I broke. I saw there were two options, and I had a choice of where to focus my work, what direction I was to go. I chose the Yin, and began to create from love.
My work is done in a sacred manner, and in celebration. I have fun. I dance with nature – my work is not mine alone, I have such deference to nature that I invite it into my work, to take a hand in its creation. It is a collaboration, a dance with the physical world. Together with evaporation, sediment, gravity, and the chance inherent to liquid flowing over a surface I conduct the work. We merge and unite to form something from Chaos, and often nature brings me to a place much greater than I could have reached on my own. I adore the natural world, and admire with reverence it’s creative advance, filling the world with beauty.
My artworks are bold, using bright colors, sharp textures and lines, often creating imposing, halting forms. I believe in the fundamentals of balance, contrast, emphasis, rhythm, movement, and unity. I use archetypal forms that stimulate distant memories to move not just the mind but the heart. My work is at the same time stark and ornate, contrasting the fundamental simplicity and complexity of life and nature. I use broad, sweeping gestures to create the core of the work, then finish with slow precise and exacting strokes – a reflection of nature replaying the collision that created the earth and the eons of delicate growth that filled it with life.
I seek to create a destination, art that is to be studied, that becomes the conduit or focus point for contemplation. I seek to create breathtaking moments. I delight, live for, and truly exist in the sharp uptake of breath when a person sees my work and experiences a warmth that spreads across their whole body – that feeling of childlike wonder. I seek the creation of resounding beauty. I love my life, and want to share my heart with you. To create that which did not exist before me. I appreciate your interpretations, what you see in my work, and what moves you.
Thank you.
Mike Lanni
