An Artist's Statement

McCleary was making his Vancouver rounds the other day and came across Michael den Hertog's work. I like his artist's statement:

ARTIST'S STATEMENT

Approaching mid-life, in the middle of a successful but unsatisfying career in business, I quite literally gave up everything and began again.

The simple truth is that I had too long avoided my true calling, and once I surrendered to it, it very quickly began to reshape me. Fear turned to excitement, and faith in my creative process began to grow. I continue to risk everything in the making of my art, reaffirming my belief in what is possible, rather than what is known.

Having initially painted in more structured ways, I now work in a predominantly experimental manner that allows each painting to be a new adventure; a twisting, turning path of sweeping revisions toward an unknown outcome.

When asked why I paint, my most honest reply is simply for the joy of it. In a lifetime of searching, making art continues to be the path on which I experience most fully the immeasurable grace of being.

Michael den Hertog