Daniel Gautier

Artist's Statement:

I am an artist working in the mediums of painting and illustration, as well as musical composition and performance and the written word. My art has roots in the traditions of Hermetic and Platonic philosophy, Symbolist art, Jungian psychology, and the gnostic/mystic disciplines, East and West. My artworks are often expressions of personal inner experiences associated with the world's mystical and esoteric traditions. The paintings also often serve as visual cosmographs, expressing various mythic schemes, religious or symbolic models, and philosophical principles. My paintings may be classified according to a succession of stylistic periods, from the earliest, abstract Cosmologos Series, to the more figurative and Symbolist Mysterium paintings, to the most recent Ideogram Series.

The whole of my art may be understood as an extended “Theme and variations,” with each creative work being a part of a larger philosophical/cosmological system and an original symbolic language which I have developed, as outlined in my book, The Illuminated Word: Cosmogenesis and the Symbolic Keys to Universal Understanding. In addition to concerts, books, and art exhibitions, I offer lectures on the subjects of art history, comparative religion, literature, and philosophy. Twenty of my books have been published, including self-illustrated novels, poetry, children's books, and scholarly works. There is much cross-pollination between my artworks. I wrote a book, Songs of Creation, to accompany my Ideogram series of paintings, creating a poem and scholarly commentary to accompany each artwork. I also released an album of original piano music that provides a musical interpretation of my illustrated book of poetry, The Sun’s Calendar.

Born and raised in Miami, Florida, I received my B.A. from Duke University and my M.F.A. in Visual Arts from Florida State University. I have been living and working in the San Francisco Bay area for over 25 years.

www.dgautier.com

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