tion nor interpretation of these myths, but rather a colorful coherent amalgam of my responses, particularly those exploring a precious sense of time, desires and consequences, causes and necessities.”

The imagery is dynamic, resembling a torrent, as if spiraling forms were unfolding in time and space. “In many of the paintings there is a peculiar kind of playful chaos,” says Krause. “The chaos is cascading from the top of the image (for example in Sirens #7 (on page 66) and the Hours #3,#4 and #5 (on pages 60 and 61)) while in others, for example, Hermes (above), intermingled, layered forms, tethered to one another, float freely on a field of saturated color. But there is always an element implying that things are not quite as happy as they seem—like attending a long-awaited party only to discover that it has the potential for unanticipated turns with desires taking a circuitous route around reason.”

Painting as an art form has gone in many directions in the last 30 years: typically Krause has wanted

his work to stay within a space or an atmosphere and never go flat. He chose a window over a wall. He says he decided to paint illusionary objects in the spaces, “but I never wanted to take it to the point where I was actually painting something.”

In the Chronos/Tropos suite this bias has changed: we can locate, identify and number the things floating in the space, and the effect on the viewer has been intensified because these phantasmagorias are so highly charged with the significance of dreamlike visions. Krause attributes the new sensations to his working process. Now, he says, he is aiming for “ painstaking clarity combined with the feeling of throwing paint from across the room.”

Krause doesn’t aim to emulate the old masters. The goal of his procedure is to create a lively, painterly atmosphere in which dribbles of paint are suspended along with myriad other incidents of pigment. In this atmosphere some chains of paper circles float as trans-

November 2008 ■ www.artistsmagazine.com