Qualia 1+1=1 

Attraction and Entanglement

A series of acrylic diptychs on canvas, 2017-19  

Definitions:   Qualia: perceptual sensations before they become named by consciousness, by mental conditioning, the sensory qualities prior to being categorized by the associative mind.

As a painter, I am thinking about Edward O. Wilson's discussion of notions of free will and "qualia", that provoke the "subtle, almost inexpressible feelings we experience about sensory input, sensations and their related feeling tones that precede naming, i.e. redness before it is identified as red.  In this I am painting about how our minds work and navigate optical experience, how our conscious naming of the word is delayed, invited, entangled by the meeting of eye and mind. These thoughts dovetail nicely with Eric Kandel's work on "reductionism" in art and brain science, especially how the brain processes abstract art ("bottom up") differently than figurative imagery ("top down”).

The Qualia 1+1=1, diptychs, each an exploration of optical attractions and what is perceived as continuity/discontinuity; how 2 may be perceived as 1. Physics reveals that atoms cannot physically touch one another, that they may however achieve quantum entanglementand attraction. To me this is, aside from interesting science, an ontological and perhaps psychological metaphor for being with another, remaining distinct, not melding into one, being in proximity, remaining intact.

(Also see Artist Statement  and Tesserae)

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