Your Painting, 2009; oil on canvas.

Experience is a form of paralysis. - Erik Satie

At first glance, Todd Bura's paintings on view at Triple Base Gallery seemed utterly unsophisticated and primitive. I was reluctant to look closely. As I was about to exit the space, however, a stack of show posters in the corner caught my eye. "Painting Spiritual Painting" is a body of work whose merit is not entirely understood by the viewer unless accompanied by R.M. Wilke's statement printed on the show posters. It exhorts in part that "If the angel deigns to come, it will be because you have convinced him, not with tears, but with your humble resolve to be always beginning: to be a beginner!" Coupled with the fact that each piece is entitled Your Painting, I was encouraged to look again, endeavoring to see the work with fresh eyes.

The works contain basic shapes and primary colors using simple painting techniques. In focusing on the experience of painting a circle, line, or dot as a singular act that can never be repeated or re-experienced, Bura has instructed himself "to be a beginner." For example, in one work he employs a method with which most people are familiar: swirling colors onto a page and covering it with black, then using a sharp object to scrape away the top layer and reveal lines of cosmic wonder.

These paintings are mere remnants of the artist's attempt to "humb[ly] resolve to be always beginning." Anyone can paint a circle, but can they also treat the act of painting a circle as the innocent beginning of something new?

Todd Bura: "Painting Spiritual Painting" is on view at Triple Base Gallery in San Francisco through October 25, 2009.