Seminal Earth

Put the other way around: proper, accurate seeing seems to require a certain innocence, a lack of pre-conception, and hence the willingness to know and accept the otherwise obvious limitations of knowledge and belief. Life is then perceived as the immense and undivided mystery it really is, and in the perplexity and peculiar ignorance characteristic of this observation, the self becomes as ambiguous and undefinable as the seamless stream of life and death in which it flows along with everything else.

We usually come to art with different preconceptions and thus in our interpretations, in our likes and dislikes we only manage to see ourselves in it. Because this is so, the first thing I recommend to viewers of the work I do is to become aware of that; observe how your mind projects itself into the painting or the sculpture you are looking at and how, in so doing, you fail to see what is really there. Seeing the pervasiveness of ones mental conditioning and how it informs perception sheds enormous light on the chronic conflicts and sorrows of our lives. It is also all that needs to be seen in order to allow what is mysterious and undefinable to irrupt in our lives and fill every instant with awe and reverence.

Beyond the Surface, oil on board, 22"x22"

The second thing I would say is that because Nature is the only real work of art, I can only hope that what I do with paint and stone may kindle in some viewers as well as in myself the urgency to break erroneous patterns of behavior and come much closer to natural things and to one another in a manner not mediated by word and image. A simple life and an adoring contemplation of the universe flowing in and through us is, after all, the only antidote to the empty promises of materialistic and religious ideologies everlastingly trying to convince us that security and happiness can be attained through tribal and psychological separation.

If we had to cite an historical precedent for the method of Fernando Llosa, it would be the technique invented by Spanish Surrealist Oscar Dominguez and practiced most successfully by Max Ernst in the opening years of the Second World War. By enhancing shapes formed when viscous paint is blotted, Ernst sought to give free reign to the forces of the human subconscious.

Ithaca artist Fernando Llosa has spent much of his artistic career developing methods for "pushing" acrylic paint over a firm surface. The layers of paint slide over one another, creating images of almost photographic three dimensionality, which the artist then often articulates with a more painterly touch.

This interplay of form and formlessness – of spontaneity and intention – in Fernando’s work is mysterious and highly compelling. Whether he is working in stone, graphite, or paint, the artifact for Llosa is not so much a preconceived end as the by-product of a continuous dialogue between the artist and his material.