Imaging the Unseen

IMAGING THE UNSEEN

Paintings and Drawings by

ROMAN VEROSTKO

Every human person bears within himself a jewel-like capacity - an imagination, a living spirit - which often lies dormant, unable to break through the busyness of everyday life. This human reality remains elusive because its peculiar mode of being transcends verbal and rational categories and we see its sparks come forth only occasionally.

These paintings and drawings emerge from interest in pictorial imagery that stimulates our awareness of and delight in the human imagination. The images contain no conscious symbolism. They are not charged with meanings. I have tried to achieve, in pictorial statement, the flow of "making up" an image and the delight of that human imagining which unfolds the image. In every instance I seek to evolve an image that would be simultaneously unlike anything seen before, yet surprisingly believable in terms of its own reality. I believe that such imagery provides "experience clues" about the nature of realities which are outside the scope of rational consciousness.

The Eikon Series

The Greek word eikon (image) has been used traditionally to refer to the holy images associated with both ritual and private devotion in Eastern Christianity. These images were "sensible" forms through which the believer could be led to contemplate or participate in the sacred realities of his belief. The paintings in this show are titled Eikons not to suggest "holy" images, but rather that tradition of painting which strives to embody in some form of "sensible" image a reflection of realities that touch the human spirit but are outside our visible world.

The Limn Series

The term limn is an archaic verb meaning "to represent in drawing or painting". Limn derives from the medieval English and French words for illuminate whose Latin root (inluminare) meant "to light up" or "to embellish". The illuminated manuscript of the middle ages was intended to "shed light" on the sacred word. The drawings in this show are titled Limns to suggest historical continuity with that aspect of medieval illumination which attempted to shed light on realities known to the spirit, but unseen.

In our complex 20th century life the treasures of the spirit within us tend to be encumbered with objects, things, and everyday business. To enter one's imagination, to play, to delight in the gift of the human spirit - these are "free" activities that break through that prison and nurture the human quality of life. Through these paintings and drawings I have attempted to enter that imagining mode in the life of the spirit and to evoke some of its treasures.

Roman J. Verostko
Minneapolis, November 1972