Conical geometry encompasses the concept of a point (in Euclidean geometry "that which has no part"), to an object that expands infinitely. In these paintings the cones are rendered in multiple dimensions with a triangle centered inside of a circle, as though you were seeing a cone from two angles simultaneously: top (circle with a center point); and from the side, a triangle. The elliptical centers tie together the two and three dimensionality of these images. The view is one that we strive for in our understanding but cannot achieve, that is, to see a thing wholly all at once.
I see cones as elemental renderings of human perception, potential, understanding, and quests for knowledge. Viewed with regard to the body, I understand cones to be "the shape of breath" and "the shape of the sound of breath". Breath is the link between the body (finite), to consciousness (infinity).
In our direct experience the cone also defines our visual field starting with the apex, expanding to an infinite number of other points of view. [It connects to all possible realities and is all possible realities simultaneously. I see analogies to particle physics and entanglement; and in Buddhism, Indra's web.] These paintings are about looking out into the universe, and at the same time looking deep inside one's self. They are my quest to render the relationship of self to infinity. I do this by bringing together two modes of human perception: geometry and experience. The paintings begin as conceptual--each has a graphite drawing of a circle with a triangle centered inside it that remains visible [as an underdrawing]; then the process becomes experiential, expressed by painting.
All images copyright Jill O'Bryan