We are fortunate to live in an age that is not dominated by a single discourse. Today we recognize multiplicity where a previous age could only see inconsistency. The artist today is guided by the idea of possibility instead of necessity. The artist's decisions are a path to a possible world. They can no longer be judged against an ideal within a historical fiction. The artist's work is beholden only to the law of its own evolution. Today the artist can accept the heterogeneity of his or her drives, sacrificing it only for the sake of temporary coherences.

My work begins with a visual impression. Something I see in the natural world, a photograph, a dream, a mental image that seems to arise out of nowhere. In these visual impressions I catch a glimpse of something mysterious. I am not interested in a mystery that is conventionally portrayed by darkness and shadows, somber colors and blurred outlines. I am interested in mysterious images, not in an image of mystery.

When I started painting I wanted to create works which were devoid of symbolism and narrative, but which remained within the experience of the visual world—not representations, but ghosts of the visual world. I quickly discovered I had assumed an impossible task. I myself would discover symbols and stories in my work while I was in the process of creating it. I tried to efface these suggestions but new ones immediately took their place. I still try to preserve the mystery of the originating impression, but I now accept and welcome the interpretations that are inevitably elicited by the work. The name given to each piece may point to one interpretation which emerged with the work, sometimes only at the very end. This name is just another brush stroke—it is not meant to indicate the "meaning" of the work.

Why do I paint? I paint because I believe in the power of art to inspire and transform individuals.

Jose Villegas

Jose Villegas was born in Ciudad Juárez, México, and grew up in El Paso, Texas. He received a B.A. in Art, Art History and Anthropology from Rice University in Houston, Texas and a Master of Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley. He practiced architecture for several years in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is currently a painter in New York City.