The artwork of Lucas Blok is a dance with color. Surrendering to the rhythm and flow of his paintings invites a participatory experience. His paintings allow us to both find and lose ourselves in the haze of an unrelenting, pulsating color. Blok’s paintings attempt to frame time and require one to look slowly and hold the space while the colors move and shift. The interactions and nuances of his geometric patterns, elusive line work, and play between bold and soft colors engage us, and with them the visual dance begins. He sets the stage to induce a transformative environment.
Upon interacting with a Blok painting one is struck immediately by the radiance coming from the piece, as if it were luminescent. The deceptive minimalist design gives way to a simulated three-dimensional projection allowing us to witness the evolution of the multiple color and shape sequences. As one continues to explore these changes, the rectangular and amorphous shapes undulate with endless motion. The experience deepens when other manifestations begin to show. New colors develop and fresh patterns begin to cycle through. The painting no longer remains an object, but instead offers a whole new set of experiences. Suddenly, we might feel the energy of the painting and sense that we are no longer separate from it, but strangely, inside it.
Color has powerful subliminal and emotional effects on the body and the mind. It has the ability to influence our mental state while helping us distinguish the world in which we live. In working with the principal elements of art (line, shape, and color) to express ideas, moods, and emotions, Blok’s color combinations allow viewers to discover the mercurial and subjectivity of color itself. Blok offers the viewpoint that “color is energy converted to thought.” Color is intangible, a process of creation by the viewer as a response to the various energy and light levels we encounter. It is said that there are thousands of hues, tints, and shades that our eye can see, yet because our eyes are wired differently, color interpretation becomes a personal, sensorial experience. Color directs us to the various aspects that shape our lives and connects to our way of being. Alexander Schauss, director of the American Institute for Biosocial Research believes that “color has a direct physiological impact. The electromagnetic energy of color interacts in some still unknown way with the pituitaryand pineal glands and the hypothalamus, deep in the brain. These organs regulate the endocrine system, which controls many basic body functions and emotional responses…” Blok’s paintings follow this belief. They are tools to let go of the logical mind and allow the intuitive body to feel and steer the awareness and communication. He hopes to generate color into a composition of movement that will inspire emotion that connects to each of the senses, and awaken parts of us we might consider spiritual.
There is a creative freedom when looking at Blok’s paintings. Before we know it, we are in a naturally altered state. Whether it is through a deep procession of indigo blues that create soothing serenity and calm concentration, the energetic optimism and stimulating lemony glow of his canary, amber, and golden yellows or his reds and violets that grab us with visceral power, warmth, and instinctual aggressiveness, we gravitate towards them for primordial reasons. His paintings demonstrate for us that we exist and function in an ontological cycle: that what we perceive to be real we understand and what we understand to be real is created by what we perceive. Lucas Blok’s paintings are potent windows that allow us to better know ourselves and to connect to others. Like a dance with color, the joy is to revel in the experience and embrace that we are all creators in fluid motion.