Tom Colcord

I use painting to explore the nature of our consciousness.

I view my mind as another limb; an evolutionary adaptation that can run simulations based on past experiences in order to help prepare me for future trials and gain awareness of danger. Past, present, and future exist inside the mind as one, allowing us the unique capacity to create fictions to navigate and explain the world around us.

To capture the most objective reflection of the mechanical functions of the mind possible, I collage disparate interior and exterior elements with the goal of creating an image that feels logical yet illusive. This results in a landscape of mind that mimics the inherent subjectivity of our perceptions; illustrating how the reality we construct in our mind may complete the reality we experience, but discriminates based on our morphing beliefs, memories, and ideas.

I feel the landscape is the most appropriate mode of painting to discuss the mind because it can suggest vastness, fullness, and emptiness simultaneously. Much in the same way the impressionists used light to capture a moment in time, I aim to use these paintings to capture a sincere reflection of the mind.

“Intimate Astrology” is a meditation on the choice to either embrace or reject signals and synchronicities. While openness is certainly required to gain a higher level of consciousness, the sources and messages of signs are never certain.

Our interaction with the environment is where “meaning” comes from, and the mind often loves to play tricks on itself. The realization that we can choose what signs we may or may not respond to makes us more active participants in the path to enlightenment.  

Ultimately, the directions we choose reveal the paths that the universe opens for us.