Consciousness can only make
sense of the world by parsing it via specificity and definition.
To the intellect, each word and each object is unique and
bounded and distinct from one another. Just as elements
of matter cannot occupy the same space in the material
world, neither can words or objects intersect. In a sense,
language serially digitizes the world so that consciousness
can process information at the interface with its surroundings.
The disadvantage of this construct is that each defining
line of segregation is also a barrier to a direct unbounded
communion with reality – that communion being defined
as transcendence. To completely reject these defining boundaries,
however, would dissolve specificity and distinctness, and
thus would only restore the amorphous feeling of a pre-conscious
neonate. Rather, true transcendence – an alert hyper-consciousness – requires
the simultaneous acceptance and coexistence of all distinct
words and objects (including their boundaries). That is,
rather than occurring in a digital world, transcendence
occurs in an analog world. Rather than a serial world,
a parallel world. Acceptance, rather than rejection. Intersection,
rather than material exclusion. And thus, visually translucent,
rather than opaque. Michael Lownie portrays the edges and
boundaries of the world. When those edges and boundaries
are translucent, he presents transcendence.
Michael Lownie lives and works in San Francisco – a
city at the sharp confluence of earth, sea, and sky. And
the theme of so much of his work is the nature of boundary.
The painting’s titles describe boundaries in space
(Epicenter, Crevasse, Fissure, and Horizon); boundaries
in time (Dusk West, Crack of Dawn, Silver Solstice, Afterglow,
Dawn, and ‘Round Midnight); the fulcrum moments of
historic events (Tsunami, Hurricane Watch, and Hanging
Chad); and ultimate boundaries of reality (Speed of Light,
Disappearing Act, and Creation). More importantly, behind
the titles, boundary is the intrinsic theme of the works
themselves (as described below).
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Early period
To date, Lownie’s works can be divided into two periods.
The earlier period is composed mostly of canvasses that glimpse
outward at, or through, the world’s edges and boundaries.
Horizons - where states of matter distinctly meet - are featured
especially. For example, Stratus Blue shows an intermediate
layer between sky and ocean. Depending on the composition
of that middle layer, the suspended spheres in it can be
either bubbles (air-in-water) or planets (solids-in-air).
So, that intermediate layer is a state of matter that oscillates
across the boundary that separates gas from liquid. And the
interspersed spheres within the layer help to facilitate
that oscillation.
Similarly, in View from Below, further facilitation is seen,
but modulated by finer elements. In the painting, fine misty
clouds (water-in-air) are separated by a blurred boundary
of horizon from fine sea-foam (air-in-water). Although, in
these works, the artist has not allowed the intersection
of matter’s boundaries, he is approaching a dissolution
of the boundary between distinct states of matter by modulating
that difference with smaller intermediary elements.
Beyond matter, there is the approach to dissolve the boundary
between light and dark. Beacon, is a shaft of light in the
dark; and its inverse, Dawn, is a shaft of dark in the light.
Unlike the unbounded continuum of real macroscopic light,
here the edges between dark and light are clearly defined,
yet translucent at their intersection. By accepting all boundaries,
Lownie has shown a world where light and dark can coexist,
thus transcendent.
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Modulated states of matter:
Stratus Blue (upper) and
View from Below (lower). 
Light and dark coexist in
Beacon (left) and Dawn (above). |
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