(4) Vison III – Seeing the Light and leaving the tunnel
When I left Screamer Mountain in 1978, I had completed the series of paintings started right after my father's death. All but one . . . In this painting I had finished the very complex architectural opening around what I intended to be the light source in the center of the canvas. The paintings in this series seemed to be an animation starting with the first to the last. Within the center there is a stylized aperture opening. In each successive painting the center opening becomes larger, revealing more and more the source of the light. In this last incomplete work of the series, the center was the largest but left unpainted. After moving here, the unfinished work was put away for twelve years. In those twelve years my attention was on painting light, not the source of the light. In a conversation with Steven, I was saying that I would never paint the source of the light. Steven said, "Why not? Why don't you just go ahead and do it? Paint the light!" So I pulled out this unfinished painting and completed it and the series twelve years later. Of all the "light" paintings that I have done, this is the only work that the light source is revealed.