Arthur L Nichols

About the Artist

I am a painter, working in oils, acrylics, and watercolors. My work recently has formed around the notion of Sangha, meaning circle or group in the Buddhist tradition, expanding here to refer to self and other, community, inside/outside. My paintings reflects some of Joan Miro, Alexander Calder, Paul Klee, Brice Marden. There are constellations and star maps and bio-luminescence. There is a visual search for the first sound. There is humor and pathos in our human interactions. There is a personal relationship with the Other, and the manifestation of that interbeing. The separation of me from all the rest is only a product of my attention and intention. There is a sense of universality and of the absolute in the form of the circle. The square of the canvas is a despot. The circle refers to itself. There are elements of chance, fixed parts, and parts unformed except from what they are not. There are layers, and there are parts that are flat and simple. Movement and stillness. Formal and casual (causal?). Abstract and emotional. They are not explorations of duality, but rather celebrations of unity. I seem to be drawn to images from astronomy: the vastness of space, the nature of stardust, and the immediacy of light. Koo koo ka choo.