Artist’s Statement, Bio

It is the artist’s role to always deepen the mystery.
- Francis Bacon

Erase the lines: I pray you not to love classifications.
  The thing is like a river, from source to sea-mouth
  One flowing life.
-       Robinson Jeffers,
Monument

 

Summary:

Roderick MacIver’s impressionistic and abstract art weaves together three different influences: the long periods of time he’s spent, mostly alone, in North American wilderness, and Zen and Taoist principles of minimalism and simplicity. 

Over his thirty years as a full time artist and book author, he’s painted and sold thousands of nature watercolors and acrylic ink paintings. They range from realistic depictions of bird and animal life to abstract Sumi brush work. His work can be found in numerous private collections, on the covers of many books and in the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Salem, Oregon. 

He has donated hundreds of prints to numerous wilderness protection groups for use in their fundraisers, as donor thank you gifts and as illustrations for their publications.

Artist’s Statement: 

Since childhood, my life and art have been nourished and inspired by time in wild places, by cycles larger than the concerns of man. The silence and sense of deep peace that I find in wild places, and yes even the great struggle to cling to life, the  precious gift of life, are at the center of my work. I try to express reverence for the mystery and beauty of wild places. I try, I paint over and over, in  an effort to honor the places I love and the sense of freedom I've found there.

Robinson Jeffers' words capture my imagination. I think I know what he means. In my art, I try to flow, to capture the essence and spirit of that great flowing life, of struggle and silence and peace. I try to express the spirit and essence rather than the details which often distract. Even the river, from source to sea-mouth, has a life, a search for the Great Waters beyond.

Capturing that in painting is what Robert Henri describes in his book The Art Spirit as "the magnificent struggle.” As my life and work have evolved, I’ve turned more and more to Zen Buddhism and its roots in Taoism, particularly as those spiritual practices relate to the beauty and mystery of wild nature, for inspiration and guidance.

My goal is to live a simple life and create art that both celebrates and searches for the harmony and peace found in a close relationship with the natural world.

. . .

Roderick MacIver published the art journal Heron Dance for twenty years (now an e-journal), has been a full time working artist for thirty years and has authored several books on the creative process, the beauty and mystery of wild nature and of life, and books about the human search for meaning.

Partial List of Credits

Books

  • Gifts from the Mountain: Simple Truths for Life's Complexities
    by Eileen McDargh. Published by Barrett-Koehler.

  • Kristin's Wilderness by Garrett Conover. Published by Raven Words.

  • Wilderness Management: Stewardship and Protection of
          Resources and Values Third Edition. By John C. Hendee and Chad P. Dawson.
          Published by Fulcrum Publishing. 

North Atlantic Books has republished many of the Heron Dance Press formerly out-of-print books. These include:

Other books published by Heron Dance Press containing the art and writing of Roderick MacIver

  Magazines, Calendars and Catalogs

Bioneers Conference Catalog

           Choices One Day At A Time

Earthlight

            Earth Island Journal

            EverChanging

            Fish & Fly

            Friends Journal

Ministry of the Arts

Nastagan, The Journal of the Wilderness Canoe Association

Plough Magazine

            One Spirit Catalog

Pomegranate 2008 Calendar

Progressive Christian

            ROWE Conference Center

            Spirit and Nature

            Timberlake Farm

            Wild Earth

Wooden Canoe  

Zen Mountain Monastery 

Wilderness Protection Groups

  Ministry of the Arts

  Northeast Wilderness Trust

   RESTORE: The North Woods

   Raincoast Conservation Society

   Sky Island Alliance

   The Wild Foundation

Heron Dance has donated thousands of notecards to wilderness protection groups for their correspondence and dozens of signed, limited-edition prints and the use of art to these groups. More information can be found by visiting the Heron Dance website and entering nonprofit in the search bar.

 Collections

  Numerous private collections

  Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Salem, Oregon

Roderick MacIver founded Heron Dance, an art and literary publication, in early 1995.