Throughout much of my father ’s development as a painter he has been searching, it seems, for not only a way to express his vision, but to discover what he senses exists, a view beyond the possibility of ordinary vision. This way of working is more similar to a spiritual path than a contribution to contemporary art in that it constitutes a desire to come closer to the quality of “great meaning,” which it both searches for and absorbs at each moment of creation. In this, there is delight, recognition and interaction around this object, but there is nothing of the way emotional response exists among humans, as we ordinarily know it, with conflicts and emotional responses of every kind to everything. What exists instead is a dimension where the strongest conflict can be between shapes—without violence—and different colors. His paintings seem to have reached a plane of energetic oppositions; there is not complaisance, or absence of existence, but there are grades of light, and big changes from a brush passing laterally, or horizontally, and in these changes, things happen and a world exists.

Processes of subtle discernment allow Ted to experience what he paints. Just as in meditation a meditator knows there are many things beyond his capacity each step of the way, and he keeps on, continuing in his practice as the essence emerges into consciousness, and what is discovered is not actually the creation of anything as much as it is the bringing to light of what already exists, Ted’s painting is a discipline with an unknown but definite end.

The desire to find something beyond our human world comes to people at different points in their lives, if it comes at all. This desire can only be called a wish to escape or denial when it has no relationship to the actual life of the seeker, when the discoveries of the voyage are not brought home and made part of life. The integration of such hard-won knowledge may occur. Or, just as the meditator has to get up from his or her cushion, so the artist must stand back and regard his canvass hanging on the wall, perhaps to say at some point, “did I do that? Is that really my experience?” No matter what the answer, there would be no chance to mix this delicate reality with life if no attempt had ever been made to discover it.

There are no contradictions in Ted’s work. The chaos, confusion, disappointment, anger and despair do not enter into the picture. It is as if, having drawn near the source of light, he has found it full of movement and form there. This lucence seems one-directional, and in the end perhaps can penetrate and dissolve the heavier forms beyond, while the source remains uncontaminated.

Therefore I do not find it odd that my father’s work does not contain reflections of the state of our world today, or any references to the mind of someone existing fully in that world. He aspires to a different knowledge and a different way of being and seeing. I have always admired this and I am happy to see that his latest work shows such a strong continuation of this path of vision.