Paul Bodden

I am currently working in mixed-media assemblage and collage using acrylic media, paper, fabric, cardboard, canvas, and wood, among other materials. My exploration of three-dimensional space is tied to childhood stage construction projects, my adult life in the theater, as well as the spiritual relationship between light and dark inspired by a chance childhood experience and, more recently, my meditation practices.

As a young child, I experienced a moment of connection to a vast darkness filled with light, presence, and breath. Not long after, upon being taken to a cathedral for the first time, I recognized that the building was an attempt to capture that same experience which I later came to know as “spirit”. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I was also attracted to the work of Mark Rothko at that very early age.

More recently, as an adult, I have reconnected through meditation with that inner brilliance of deep dark, glowing black. All of my creative expression, including music and writing, has, since childhood, been involved, consciously or not, in the exploration of this experience of light-filled darkness.