Artist Statement - Urban Landscapes
Urban landscapes of empty terrain of southern California freeways were the focus of my representational work during 2000 - 2003.
This body of work - void of vehicles, road signs, and recognizable landmarks - initially grew out of my weekly commutes within the vast array of southern California freeways. One painting led to another and soon I found myself focusing my painting practice on this subject matter. I didn't set out to consciously express or imply any symbolic meaning in this body of work, but in retrospect, the urban landscapes of empty freeways reflected the embarking of my own uncertain pathways that run contrary to the unexamined self assurance that arises when one is traveling upon familiar paths and well defined destinations.
Artist Statement - Abstract Paintings
My non representational work is informed by my daily practice of seated meditation in the tradition of Soto Zen Buddhism and arose from earlier urban landscapes of empty terrain of California freeways. As with the urban landscapes the abstract work also reflects my gradual openess to uncertainty as I engage in a Zen practice that helps me to cultivate a deeper capacity to see, experience, and act from a space of life as it is rather than life as I want it to be.
Starting in 2003 compositions were unified by an underlying grid structure where compositions were created by correlating random number sequences with different hues or different values of gray. It was a simple process of creating a grid, manually assigning random numbers (similar to selecting numbers from a hat) to each cell in the grid, and then mapping a different hue or shade of gray to each number. I would then paint according to the random mapping I created. Satisfaction and pleasure was experienced in the discovery that the random dispersion of different hues within a gridded structure was to me as, if not more, visually interesting and balanced as any gridded composition I could create on my own.
During my 2003 - 2005 UC Riverside art studies that culminated in a senior thesis group exhibition, rather than relying on correlated random number sequences, paintings began to consist of repetitive pouring applications of acrylic paint within the structure of gridded canvases. Rather than relying on random number sequences, the human variation of each repeating pouring became the random and uncertain aspect of each painting.
About the Artist
John Margaris, originally trained as an electrical engineer with concentration in control system theory, left an automotive engineering career in 1997 and began his art studies in 1999. After living in Southern California 1998 - 2009 where his focus was directed toward art/Zen training, a painting practice, and a short lived home remodeling effort in Palm Springs, CA 2006-2008, he returned back to Michigan where he is returning back to cultivating a non representational painting practice that explores themes of repetition, randomness and uncertainty within the structure of grids, as well as continuing to create urban landscapes that depict subject matter pertaining to freeways and roadways.