Dimitri M. Stanich

A play on Magritte's The Treachery of Images, this painting uses a similar dynamic to point to the human capacity to engage abstractions. The image is an illusion of a three-dimensional object, yet a viewer sees an object that "holds" space, illustrating the framework of abstractions, creating a symbol without a sign. 

At first glance, the strokes and colors seem chaotic, but they are exploding from the center.  Reflecting the speed of  life, itself chaotic and only manageable by calm engagement and processing. This painting is about establishing stillness to secure balance and strength. The circle in the center is a metal semi-reflective mirror meant to draw and fix the eye.  Achieving this, the fragments of color and line are then relegated as externally observed from the platform of catwalks created by the X and square circumnavigating frame.

Not visible in this photo is the reflective tape that catches light from a distance and only visible in darkened rooms.

Day and night. Conscious and subconscious. Inside and out. Our days are a constant recursive path where we navigate perceptions and phenomena, object and interpretation, subjective meaning and objective materials.

“Mandala” is a Hindu/Buddhist illustration that maps the universe according to their spiritual symbolism .  As America’s culture is changing dramatically, I tried to envision what a mandala without cultural iconography would look like. This painting is a description of that experience. 

I started with the shape at the center, a tesseract,  a mathematical model which illustrates the progression of time. It is two cubes, one smaller and inside the larger. The smaller pushes through one wall with the larger constricting to become the smaller. This pattern continually repeats. Alternatively, the smaller continuously expands to encompass the larger cube through all six walls.  This dynamic intrigues me in that it mimics the sense of my own growth.  I remain the same but encompass new awareness and perspectives.

At the extreme center are two opposingly colored triangles. Though a static painting, I envision these as wrestling to control the cube by alternately touching three of the six internal sides of the cube, forever contorting and dancing, wrestling for position.  

All these forms are within multiple cubes and planar fields of various sizes. These frame and form the head above the shoulders of a person. 

Ultimately then, the painting is a map of my internal experience—reflecting, growing, observing, confronting, assimilating.  A mandala. A mandala without symbols. A symbol without sign. A formula without terms.

Note at the top center is a square mirror. Comparatively, it is the only stable and evenly crafted element, meant to reflect the capacity of humans to know of perfection but never able to reify it completely.

In communication, noise is a constant challenge that distorts and obfuscates messages. Every message can be warped, lost, or misunderstood.  

This painting reminds that noise, in its infinite forms, can hinder communication.

Note the mirror fragments.

A few years ago, as I was falling asleep I "dreamt" of seeing a dragon. My field of vision was a three-dimensional expanse of snow/static, like on a mistuned television.  The field vibrated and rolled in front of me, but within this I could just make out the shape of a dragon. This was made evident by its impact on the static from its movement. 

This perception has influenced my process ever since.