I was living in New Orleans and from the angle upon which I was laying on my couch I could see a face in one corner of the ceiling. Leonardo Da Vinci had written about how an artist should always be aware of faces and objects one might see in stains or soap scum or any random spills around us. But from any other angle besides that precise one, I could not see the face in the ceiling stain. It was hidden from me from any other vantage point besides my particular place on the couch. I began at that point to become consumed with the understanding and depiction of the dimensions hidden from us in our fabric of reality.

Within the consideration of physical space there are essentially two different and seemingly opposite realms. There are the common and comprehensible four dimensions we all know so very well. The big and beautiful dimensions of donuts, Jupiter, and Dolly Parton and the elusive dimension of time which we either relish or despise. Einstein eloquently weaved these classic four into his beautiful theory of general relativity describing the curves and undulations of space and time. That is the big and then there is the physics of the unbelievably tiny: quantum mechanics. The mathematics of these inscrutable notations predict the existence of seven, eight, or even an infinite number of extra dimensions; hidden dimensions, secret and small and separated from our existence in entirety, but nonetheless an essential part of the fabric of space and time.A possible infinity of dimensions which define our reality as much as Einstein, donuts, and the yellow star we orbit.

In many physics books other dimensions are often described with this analogy: You see a line in the distance. But as you approach it you begin to realize, that no, it was not just a line but a long skinny hollow tube, much like a garden hose. And upon closer and further examination you realize that there are ants climbing along both the inside and outside of the long skinny tube; the one you mistook to be only a one dimensional line just moments before. Physics books will use this to show how this ant lined garden hose is in a dimension hidden from view. But I find fault with this description. What they are describing is just something too far away for us to see properly. If I was on a space station high up in orbit and looked down upon Asia I would not see any Chinese people at all. This does not mean that all the Chinese people are in a different dimension, they are just too far away or small for me to see. I began to believe that just because a scientist can predict that a hidden dimension can exist does not necessarily mean they can accurately depict what one would be like.

My intense desire to comprehend the physical nature of space and my love and passion for art began to coalesce. Picasso and Braque's cubism incorporates ideas of Einstein's relativity  into art and altered the landscape of western art forever. But how would an artist incorporate the idea of hidden dimensions. I began with corner paintings. From the frontal view a face is in proportion. This angle to me represents the three common dimensions with which we are all so familiar. But get close to the painting, move about it and examine it from various angles and the picture changes. From below the face is happy, from above sad, warped side to side; an infinite variety of paintings exist, hidden at first from view. For me these are the equivalent of the dimensions hidden from our reality that quantum mechanics predict. Perhaps the other dimensions are not simply just too far away or small for us to perceive. Perhaps we just need a different way to look to find them.

Popeye represents my furthest exploration of incorporating the representation of extra dimensions into art. From no angle is the image the same. An infinite variety of works exist within what at first professes to be nothing more than an image of the sailor. I yam what I yam...not quite.