I Give You Mountains Upon Mountains Without End
Dan Gottsegen
oil on canvas, 48" x 60";  $7800
Exhibited at Village West in the Under the Influence show, Fall 2016

Chinese scroll
Unknown
Inspiration piece for Dan Gottsegen
Under the Influence show, Fall 2016


"I have been using multiple horizon lines layered upon each other in my work for some years. For me this had flowed out of years of working with multiple images in my work, a process of combining landscape and memory, imagery and expressions of other sensate experience in a single work in a (perhaps unconscious) effort to create a painting that was like the totality of experience of wandering (in an almost religious sense) in the natural environment.

Long solitary hikes and climbing mountains alone had/ has influenced my work, of which this is just one example, and many of which can be seen on my website. I realized in the past years that my using multiple horizon lines within a single work was not only not without precedent, it was directly and indirectly influenced by many Chinese (and some Japanese) landscape scrolls, some of which I grew up with and looked at everyday. The influence of this work would perhaps seem facile were it not for its being an integral part of a confluence of influences on my work throughout my life. I offer this one scroll (these are called "Mountains and Rivers Without End" scrolls) as a clear example of the painting that influenced me.

I Give You Mountains Upon Mountains began as a painting of my daughter when she was a little girl (one of a series) from a video still I'd caught of her playing in mud puddles in the spring, barefoot with her long blond hair and flowing white skirt, she was the picture of childhood winsome innocence. Though other paintings in the series worked, this one never had. Over time I reworked it, eventually bringing it to its current resolution over a period of years.

The title refers to an epic poem/ collection "Mountains and Rivers Without End" by the great poet Gary Snyder, whose life and work have been a profound influence on me, including when I was quite young his translation of the Cold Mountain Poems by Han Shan. This and my lifetime, ongoing, mountain wanderings are of a piece, a practice that shapes and is integral to my painting. As I reworked I Give You Mountains I began to include imagery from my experiences on the trail and on the summits, some from deep within my subconscious (and yet very particular to certain places).

Moments of Gary Snyder's poem like --
"a jumble of cliffs above,
ridge tops edged with bushes,
valley fog below a hazy canyon."
-- are completely apt, and as I worked, I understood I was still painting a portrait of my child, but also calling out to her, beckoning her to The Way in the Taoist sense, embracing her becoming an adult and embarking on her own creative path (a path she has chosen professionally). I understood that horizon upon horizon is metaphor for seeking always as both she and I (and all artists) do. And the act of creation is an act of transformation. As this painting transformed, my child informed me that she/he will be undergoing a profound transformation, a physical transformation that is a very deep integration. Our views move, we grow and change, we are on the path, the Way is hard. Strive hard.

If you are interested in purchasing this work, please contact Dan Gottsegen or visit dangottsegen.com.

 

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