Introduction

"Man's desires are limited by his perceptions: none can desire what he has not perceived."
-William Blake

In There is No Natural Religion, artist and poet William Blake postulates that “Man’s desires are limited by his perceptions; none can desire what he has not perceived”. The fundamental energy of desire, inextricably bound to the sense of perception, is a vital and essential force in the universe and fundamental to our being.
In seeking to develop this project, I approached colleagues whose work I admire, who look at their relation to the world with a vitality and optimism, and who tackle artistic problems that continue to lead them further.
Through various approaches, and a divergent application of media, this group examines our human experience. Sound, tactility, motion, narrative, relation to environment – or situation, perceptual mode and mark are some of the ways the ideas are manifested.
Houston sent me a prototype of one of his works in the show: it arrived via UPS, amidst the worst snowstorm our area has seen in decades, at a time when even the US Postal Service wasn’t delivering. And yet here was this work of art – and its delivery part of the entire experience - an unassuming cardboard box with a sketch on a gessoed panel as a functioning packing slip.
Conversations have reemerged because of this project: Dana and I met over warm coffee throughout the blustery winter, resuming a once regular intersection – a soiree of two. For a steely moment we could discuss our work, and this project.
As I write, I look forward to the firsthand experience of all the work all together: I am enamored with the simultaneity of Glen’s resolute strength and sensitivity. In Terry’s work, our audience will find enchanting ways to consider our perception of sound – beautiful and ordinary sound – as a direct influence for drawing. Dana’s quiet, contemplative cut-outs provide a prayerful, yearning serenity – at once anonymous and public. Houston regards the familiar/the intimate and the external worlds in his beautifully poetic boxes. In much of this there seems a dichotomous soul. My own work for this project vacillates between the empirical and the allegorical. But these are mere sound-bites: I hope the audience finds much more for their own examination.
I have known each of these individuals for great lengths of time. Most of us intersected in the DC area some fifteen years ago or more. Dana I have met since my time here in Pittsburgh. Since then many new chapters have unfolded. It is refreshing to have a project such as this for the purpose of an artistic reconnection. I hope it provides us all some inspiration and a wider view. Blake’s final dictum: “The desire of Man being infinite, the possession is infinite and himself infinite”, reminds us that the fulfillment our human experience is not about the collection of things, but is built on our range of vision. It is a simple hope: to see more.

Maura Doern Danko
Guest Curator