When I see artwork that is unique or hear music that is really different, or taste a really innovative flavor combination at one of our local restaurants, I can't help but wonder, "how did they come up with this?" What was the creative process? What were the steps that led from the conception to completion?I am painter and I am in "learning mode" every day. But when I approach art this way (always inquisitive, not as having "arrived"), I become open to new creative ideas. Because of this "inquisitiveness", I have come up with a form of art that is (happily) all my own. I call it "dialuminism" which is a compound Greek word that basically means "light passing through" and it's what I call my art genre because that's how it works. I paint on metallic leaf, and so light reflects off that metal and shoots back through the paint, basically creating a back-lit oil painting. And as much as I would love to take all the credit for what I do, I must admit I am not the first to think of painting on metal leaf. The ancient Egyptians started it and the Greeks perfected it. As I understand it, all creative ideas build upon previous creative ideas. There is truly nothing new under the sun. What I do as an artist is basically to take pre-existing "ingredients" (or ideas) and re-mix them into a combination that is itself unique. So as I consider the steps I've taken, I think I need to confess that I owe my genre to the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus. Now before you dismiss me as a right-wing nut job, let me explain. Around 2000, I was strolling though the Mt. Dora Arts Festival in Mt. Dora, FL. One of the booths was staffed by a gentleman that created Greek Orthodox Icons. When I approached the booth, the sun was shining down through the ancient oak trees and Spanish moss and striking the surface of countless icons, each painted on gold leaf, and I could not leave the booth. I had never seen color do what it was doing. Turns out, that when you back-light color (with light reflecting off the gold leaf), you amplify that color tremendously. I had seen icons in my art history book in college, but I had never actually seen any in person. What I saw stunned me. When I got home, I began playing with metal leaf and oil paint and I couldn't stop. Today, I paint no angels, or virgin Mary's, but every oil painting I create now began with a spark of creativity launched off the face of an icon.That was the beginning. And every day is (literally) a new beginning. Artist's Statement“I grew up painting mostly landscapes and still life, but somewhere around 2001, I began experimenting with painting on metallic leaf, and a new painting genre was born. This technique is called Dialuminism (”light passing through”) and embeds metallic leaf and multiple thin layers of oil paint within a coating of solar resistant resin. Because I am painting on a metallic surface, light reflects off the metal and illuminates the paint layers from the back. This makes for very intense color. Light plays off some areas and casts shadows beneath others, creating a dimensional painting that changes in appearance depending upon where the viewer is standing in relation to the light source. I began using this technique painting mostly abstract pieces but over the years, as the technique has morphed, I began painting more "abstracted landscape" scenes which led eventually to the more realistic landscape scenes I work on today. My “go to” subject matter tends to be either generic scenes or scenes depicting different times of day and different locales from the general Western North Carolina mountains. That said, most of the commissions I work on depict scenes given to me by my clients, and these have ranged from the canals of Venice, Queensland harbor in New Zealand and even the glaciers of Antarctica! For a commission, “the sky’s the limit” as they say.