“The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water.”
E. Hemingway (1932) Death In the Afternoon.

The Japanese saying; “learning by watching father’s back”, suggests we can gather information from subconscious observation. By watching someone and observing what they are looking at, matters which may be otherwise transparent to our naive vision can thereby be registered in our consciousness.

The cultural context of viewing art and painting in particular, relates among other things, to notions of ‘neutrality’ or ‘blankness’. Both of these notions suggest openness of interpretation and the value of leaving things unsaid, in particular, those things which do not need saying, or which cannot be said.

To use Hemingway’s terms, I want to invoke the ‘seven-eighths’ below the surface, with my subject matter as the movement of one tiny iceberg.