Pearl Park Scriptures

Early every morning, before breakfast, Roman takes a brisk walk around Pearl Park near his lakeside home in Minneapolis. During these morning walks his meditations range widely and have a deep impact on the studio work he undertakes each day. The Pearl Park Scriptures, influenced by these morning walks, embody his studio work for the past year (2004-2005). Their format is based on decorated pages of medieval illuminated manuscripts. Some pages, enhanced with a touch of gold leaf, evoke the precious quality of sacred texts.

Each work presents a colorful drawing accompanied with lines of glyphs that read from left to right. An "alphabet" of glyphs was generated for each text in this exhibition. Some works present "non-rational" glyphs arranged like a language without any meaning. Others present glyphs coded with specific texts from sources such as Darwin, Genesis, Lao Tsu, and the Apache Indians of North America. The choice of Scriptures has been guided by an effort to bridge both time and culture - to find meaning from diverse cultural approaches to spirituality and learning.

Roman's own spiritual journeys have guided his choice of scriptures. This has even included confrontation with texts that have no rational meaning as in some forms of Zen meditation and in the "non-sense" of the Dada and Neo-dada artists of the 20^th Century. The works in this show that present glyphs arranged without any rational meaning shed light on those experiences.

As in all of Roman's work the drawings remain entirely non-representational and are chosen primarily for their visual form. For these works Roman has concentrated on forms that are lean with complementary colors and a memorable structure. The relationship of form and text flows from the artist's perception of evocative qualities present in the visual form. For example, in Scripture "N", the green and blue form has life-like qualities that complement the Darwin text.

All of the drawings were created with hundreds of barely visible pen strokes. The drawing pen must retain even distribution and precision for many hours without failing.

Just as the sculptor's chisel leaves its mark on the stone, so these pen strokes leave their mark on the paper. These fields of soft pen strokes exceed what can be achieved with the human hand - their precision and even distribution reveal the inner beauty of the artist's "mind-hand". They also reveal a patient artist who must often discard many hours of work due to pen failure.

The Pearl Park Scriptures summarize Roman's involvement with code for well over 20 years. They represent the convergence of experimentation with new visual form, coded meanings and the human ability to communicate.

They may also lead us to ponder the codes we use daily - not only our language but also our gestures and even our dress codes.

Leaping beyond these concrete aspects of living, they faintly echo the coded processes of genes that shape life itself. By doing so they become icons illuminating the mysterious nature of self, earth and cosmos.

Alice Wagstaff, PhD,
Program Coordinator
FISEA '93: Fourth International Symposium on Electronic Art

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