I create my own visual currency via delicious color, spontaneous markings and geometric shapes. According to many ancient spiritual teachings as well as modern science, colors are essentially frequencies that can impact emotion and states of being. In the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, asymmetry and “imperfection” are viewed as beauty. My creative approach draws on these world views, allowing colors, organic shapes and lines to emerge naturally, mapping the movement between our inner and outer landscapes. My hope is to point to an inner sanctuary where individuals can retreat against the opposing energy of today’s urban environments.

MIXED MEDIA: My mixed media work incorporates acrylic, graphite, paper, found objects and fragments of letters filled with meaning, history and the sacred act of writing to a loved one.

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE: This series the bottle image serves as a container to store, transport and deliver messages and expressions of various kinds. The work, typically titled by a phrase from a letter, is a way to explore the nature of self and lineage, as well as themes of isolation, connection and love that are recurrent in my father’s and grandfather’s letters. I try to work as spontaneously as possible, with gestural strokes and marks, and a passion for color. I use layers of acrylic, graphite, crayon, my own hand-painted fabrics, paper, and found objects, along with family letters, postcards and photos. My original inspiration came from my father. Click here to see how.

DYE on SILK: Silk once served as a currency in the East and a gateway to the West. I continue that exchange by referencing the philosophical and spiritual ideas of the East while transporting the ancient discipline of painting on silk into our contemporary experience. My work explores the search for a meditative rather than a demanding energy to navigate our Western urban lives.

- Ellen Brook

https://ellen-brook.com/https://ellen-brook.com/

Michael Endicott is an Urban Nature Impressionist exploring the interaction between the “subset environment” constructed by us and the “hosting environment” dictated by nature.  There is a constant feedback loop between the two that affects us, both physically and culturally, as individuals and as a species. His manipulations of the light captured by his camera are like chiseling away at a piece of marble to find the element inside the scene that“triggers response.”

This process can pull his photography into the realm of expressionist or abstract painting, not by adding color via digital programming, but by "bending" the different wavelengths of light inherent in the original photograph.  The effect can substantially alter viewers’ immediate understanding of the subject, while adding layers of dialog between us and nature.

Michael's Contemporary Art combines words and images under the theme of "Choose Joyful."  Here, Michael's whimsical side takes precedence, and his digital drawing, consisting of strong colors and bold lines, combines with the art’s title to buoy the spirits as we face the daily challenges and questioning inherent in our "humanity” and common to us all.

His photographs and art are for sale and he welcomes commissions.   There is much joy to be had in collaborating on specific pieces for your home or business establishment. Follow his daily posts on Instagram @michaelbendicott. Be sure to read the accompanying titles.

                                        -Michael Endicott

https://www.michaelbendicott.com/Website