These paintings differ from the more traditional, romantic studies of the water lily. They try to juxtapose the traditional serene setting of the lily by placing them in the context of contemporary environments: iron bridges, intensely colored sunsets, and evening neon lights. The images depict the persistence and dominance of nature in the face of an increasingly man-made setting.

Just as with meditation and the symbol of the chakras, the lily flower is used to visualize the opening of awareness. The more complex our lives, the more the search for peace need be found in nature.

These paintings were conceived "en plein air," in either tranquil park-like settings or on the banks of urban wastelands, the better to document the collage of the natural and the conceptual symbiotically entwined in our cities' vibrant water passageways, caught in the profound beauty that can be idealized with paint while in both worlds.

I make no effort to hide my debts to my predecessors, too many to mention. But there is an obvious study of light on water, learned from Turner, and who can paint a water lily without acknowledging Monet? I strongly believe in the molecular theory of the Buddhists, and now scientists, who claim that waves are all there is. We perceive boundaries, but they are an illusion. I am not painting things, i.e. flowers, but the waves, the light, the reflection, and the matrix of connecting fibers that I see as the undercurrent.

Yet, this urban contemplation of light on water carries the baton of their classical concepts into a realm where they can be seen afresh and with Zen-like clarity.

Diane Pfister   « shrink