Arthur Durkee | Artist's Statement

VISIONARY FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY

My work has been called archetypal, mythopoetic, shamanic, and visionary.
I am interested in the transpersonal, numinous and liminal in art, rather
than the time-bound, ego-driven “personal expression” that has dominated
art for the past century. The Universe is a surprising, beautiful place, full
of mystery—in many ways, my artwork simply re-creates what I have seen.

PHOTOGRAPHY:

Much of my photographic work begins in “camera walks,” a practice of active-seeing: seeing rather than merely looking, seeing what is actually present, without expectation or pre-planning, process-oriented rather than goal-oriented. The photo is a record of an experience, a connection. It works best when "I" am not present, when there is a state of egoless being, of no-self. On a typical camera walk, I may capture only one image, or shoot several dozen. I rarely take more than one photo of what presents itself in each moment, however. Experience has shown that the process does not require shooting an entire roll of film to capture a single good image, as so many photographers do, but that one or two frames are enough.

LANDSCAPE ART:

Each piece is a collaboration with the place and time it is made, not created by me alone. They are not my works of art. Rather, I respond to the energy of place, and bring to the surface what energies are there; making visible what can be felt there, rather than imposing my will or desire or taste onto the land. Seeing and feeling what is present, making manifest what is already there.

What do I call this work? Each piece is ephemeral, made completely from local materials, to remain only in the photos I take, after natural processes have eroded it away. Do I call it land art? Natural sculpture? Landscape art? I hesitate to call them sculptures, because I have no formal training in sculpture.

I am content for the moment to leave this work unnamed as a genre; although I am discovering that individual pieces have names, given during the making. Several pieces are clustered under one series name; or, there is a unifying thread between diverse pieces. The feeling arises equally at the shoreline and in the desert. These two extreme climates speak to me of what lies between the inhabitated places. It is like weaving with rocks, branches, sand, and light. Assembling forms from the objects at hand, not adding to them in any way; just rearranging what has been provided. A direct response to what natural processes have placed there. It’s an interesting process; all I feel that I “own” are the photos I take after completion.

BACKGROUND QUOTATIONS:

Some art is shamanic in function. Formed from collective unconscious material, it activates the unconscious of its audience and mobilizes the psyche’s self-healing capacities. It opens the door to a different reality, the world of dreams and imagination, and “spirits” silently pass into the world of every day, affecting people in unexpected ways. Shamanic art undermines unexamined cultural assumptions. For this reason it disturbs some people and may even arouse rage. Those who are open to it, however, often find that it sets their own creativity in motion. Such art tends to be prophetic. It asks, even insists, on being heard, just as shamans are compelled to tell about their inner experiences when they begin to apply what they have learned about healing themselves to the healing of others. The visionary creative act is not complete until it finds an audience, coming out into the world and disturbing the complacent surface of collective consciousness.

—Janet O. Dallett, When the Spirits Come Back

Don’t think me exalted; I’m not referring to myself; I speak for whoever feels as I do and is not naive enough to confess it. If a separate personal Paradise exists for each of us, I reckon mine must be irreparably planted with trees of words the wind silvers like poplars, by people who see their confiscated justice given back, and by birds that even in the midst of the truth of death insist on singing in Greek and saying, “eros, eros, eros.”

—Odysseas Elytis, Open Papers

Resumés in PDF format:

Artist's Statement 2004

Artist's Bio 2004