THE ASHUR PAINTINGS ASHUR 1 2002, 60 inches H x 40 inches W Acrylic Mineral and Aluminum Fragments on Paper ASHUR 2 2001, 40 inches H x 60 inches W Acrylic Mineral and Aluminum Fragments on Paper These paintings convey the tension of creative and destructive potentialities, expressed through expanding and contracting gestures of energized form. Intense color, violent motion, and slashing directional gestures evoke the energies and emotions embedded in the deepest layers of the religious impulse. The mineral encrusted black diagonals are derived from the fusion of the orbital socket and the cranial horns of the sacrificial animal; a symbolic conflation of form which references the bull, ram, and goat, and their relevant properties of potency and power. ASHUR 1 incorporates the suggestion of animal and human elements impacting and flexing back upon themselves. The swirling central vortex and the thrusting diagonal suggest sexual energies and allude to the struggle between chaos and order, emotion and intellect, and the eternal struggle to synthesize these antagonisms in the service of the cosmic vision. In ASHUR 2, strong bisecting lines and slashing forms refer to sacrificial and tribal divisions, and the impulse towards self-definition and separation from the Other. These primal dichotomies coexist paradoxically with the yearning for universal union, the ultimate goal of the evolving spiritual quest. ASHUR refers to the national god of Assyria and is analogous to the Hebrew Yahweh. He is the Lord of the Four Cardinal Points, and the god of the four faces of the bull, eagle, lion and man. He incorporates and manifests the energies expressed in the regional belief matrix of Western religions and lends his name to these paintings.