In his famous painting "La Trahison des images (Ceci n'est une pipe)" ["The Treachery of Images (This is not a pipe)"], Magritte explores the issues of symbolism, identity, and perceptual reality by creating a symbol of a pipe (the painting) and then labeling the image of the pipe "This is not a pipe"... revealing to the viewers that we are being tricked. We are deceived not so much by our eyes or by the illusion, but by the mind's ability to refer to and identify symbols with objects, to conceptualize reality.

The artist has a challenge: to create a painting that engages the viewer, and with the artisan's flair, to trick us into waking up and seeing ourselves and our world a little differently...the artist as trickster, shaman, or social critic.

I wanted to explore Magritte's visual pun from the painter's perspective (the artist as the man behind the curtain...) and our compulsion to create or re-invent images in a creative and expressive way.

In my 'Pipes' series, each painting is done in a different technique or in a different artist's style. This series has given me the opportunity to explore a wide range of painting styles and techniques, and to have some fun painting in the manner of many of my favorite artists. For a painter this is like a musician performing her favorite tune and adding his own variations on the theme.

What is the essence of an object? What is the essence of a symbol of an object? How does the creation of a symbol contribute to our understanding of the object? ... or of ourselves? Can creative expression bridge the gap between the observer and her experience of the observed? Does the looking and interpreting reveal more about the object, or about the viewer of the object? How many different ways are there to express an idea about reality (the symbol)? Does this creative interpretation add to what we know about the nature of reality (the pipe)? At what point does the creative process transcend the object's "pipeness"? How many times can a pipe be expressed before its "pipeness" is revealed?

"Is it a pipe...yet?"- RQ