RON PICCO

chán na zen impressions

   Ron Picco's mixed media etchings are works that challenge us to re-examine the spiritual sense of our human nature. Having lived and taught at Fu Jen University in Taipei, Taiwan, his introduction and affiliation with Chin Chan (Zen) Buddhism has always influenced his work. This new body of work gives focus on the purity of shapes and forms that speak as objects for meditation.

Picco's works are limited in their minimal details. They are intended to evoke a deeper, internal reflection of the human experience. The forms and shapes are created with a series of repeated, linear strokes similar in meaning and purpose to the strokes used in Chinese calligraphy which stimulates our common aesthetic instinct. Each print demands a personal connection in its elegant silence. Each print reflects a graceful execution of minimal details evoking deep, internal reflections of the human spirit. The sensitivity of the repeated marks create an internal/external balance in their Zen manner. Picco has a special way of shaping the strokes into rhythmic patterns that are soft and hard at the same time, reflecting the yin/yang balance of our spiritual nature. The prints are open in their relationship between space and the minimal shapes. They stimulate an appreciation of the beauty reflected in the movement of the stroke patterns which create the internal structures in each piece.

The use of color in the prints is as simple and minimal as the images themselves. Some shapes reflect subtle duotones acquired through a double inking process. The inclusion of simple lines of color in the prints visually stimulates a subtle sense of color compositional balance. Though Picco's work reflects elements of the minimalist style on a smaller scale, his style and purpose stand by themselves in their undulating movement and beautiful patterns. They become lyrical, intimate statements as Ch'an na (meditative) reflections. This body of work reflects a graceful execution in their purity of purpose and focus.