I never usually appropriate titles, but “Magic Circle” is a name appropriated from an old John William Waterhouse painting. The name helps make the painting about art history and previous paintings(one theme) and indicates if you know the Waterhouse work that this work may be about a sorceress. Also it’s a thing in witch craft to draw a circle for protection. Thats why a pentagram has a circle, the star is the body and the circle is the protection. A circle is a simple metaphor for a protected body like a cell membrane or brick house, some kind of enclosure. Other than all that the narrative is completely different than Waterhouse’s. In mine here, the circle refers to many parabolic narratives.

Maybe one narrative about a queen (with golden crown and green corona / halo) subject who takes heads in order to protect herself, but only because she feels if she doesn’t, then she will loose her own head. -Or- Perhaps it’s about death and losing loved ones around you, and the secret fear that you’ll be next. I think there are many circular karma-tic narratives, almost lessons in there. Heads being symbolic of life and death. The white flowers symbolize new beginnings in the west and death in east Asia. So a hybrid symbol of transformation is my intention.

She and the flowers grow up from other worldly landscape of heads(the back and foreground ended up looking kinda James Ensor in color and character). All heads were cut out from other artists paintings and incorporated into this painting so the subject could be me, the artist of this painting cutting the other artists paintings up, worried about his own head. It’s confessional, surreal, complicated and dark like a good Leonard Cohen song.

All my works are both self portraits, and they are about “Painting” itself. I find that way they are magical in the way a viewer can then relate the works to themselves or liken them to current events, or consider them analogies for their specific industry instead of our industry of “painting”(maybe banking and finance person, medical person, business person, or socialite could relate to this painting). Heads will roll, but maybe its not worth it. Destruction is creation. There is a virtuous art loop there for anyone to relate to. That’s also the “magic circle”. The looping relationship between the person viewing, and the work.

The cut canvas heads are backed with pva glue and cardboard, so they are stiff. Fastened to the frame and panel by staples and glue. Everything in my sculptural works is stapled and glued with acrylic, mechanical and chemical bonds both so delimitation or movement is impossible. The staples in the figures are painted over, hidden with the various sculpting media.