Judy Rey Wasserman’s Artist’s Statement
I am the founder of the Contemporary, Post Conceptual art theory of UnGraven Image. My hope and intention is to grow it into a movement.
UnGraven Image is the first theory of art to entirely focus on the stroke.
It is also the first theory of art to use symbols for every stroke. As the meaning of the symbol-stroke is inherent in itself, a stroke can be and usually is obscured. This replicates physical reality, which is really energy (the pre-particles/waves of elementary physics) that we also cannot see. It is a next step from Conceptual, especially Word art.
The set of symbol-strokes are letters from what seems to be the only fully binary phonetic font: Torah font Hebrew. This means that there is inherent (spoken and chanted sound vibration also inherent in each stroke. Being binary, the strokes also reference scientific applications in science and mathematics.
Binary is synonymous for duality, so important concepts in many of the world’s spiritual paths (ying-yang, good-evil, holy-profane) are simultaneously referenced.
Of course, the theory of UnGraven Image also refers to theology held by every branch and denomination of Judaism and Christianity that when the Creator speaks the physical universe into existence, the letters of those words represent the elemental essences of the physical universe.
The texts used for my artworks are are usually original texts from the Bible. (Sometimes I may use a prayer.
This means that my UnGraven Image art is also the first theory of art wherein the art can be simultaneously categorized as religious art (both Christian and Jewish), but also as secular art as basically I create secular images of landscapes, cityscapes, flora and fauna and people, including portraits.
Thus, in my art the viewer may be looking at an image of a tree, but all that is actually there are the Torah font letters of a text, such as Deuteronomy 6:5-9, known as the V’havta.
I work to depict what we don’t see – the underlying reality of the universe, which is both physical and scientific, yet has a spiritual genesis. The letters interweave, are glazed one over another, and tumble in jumble that adds up to an image. This references the tiny membranes, that link until they form into particles, then atoms, then energy and matter, etc.
UnGraven Image art is Post Conceptual art as it uses the idea of stimulating a viewer’s visual concept via symbols, including words, but goes a next step further by physically creating a narrative imagery from those symbols. This imbues the work with at least two sets of meaning, one strictly visual (narrative) but also one or more that is conceptually based. UnGraven Image is always about how the reality (image) of the work is brought into existence (through the symbol-strokes).
Thus my work is about the how. How we live, how we treat each other and the earth, as well as and how the painting or sculpture is made-the strokes. It is also about how we see as a large part of the ability to see is about being able to decode, or interpret, the sensory l information we receive from our eyes — it is about how to see more of reality, the energies, possibilities and even blessings that are always in every moment of now.
The texts used for each painting are carefully chosen and give added underlying meaning to each work
The information in the above statement is greatly expanded in “The Manifesto of Post Conceptual UnGraven Image Art — A Painting’s Meaning is Inherent in its Stroke.” The Manifesto booklet is available through the Art of Seeing the Divine SHOP’s website: ART MANIFESTO
