Questions and Answers
about the
Art of F.F.Long

1. What is this?

These are abstracted glimpses of an inner space, more basic to our awareness than our outer bodies. They represent moments of revelation in consciousness experienced by the artist.

[Return Home] [Top of Page]

2.How is this done?

These are acrylic paintings. They are painted in reverse (on the back of a clear sheet of material). I use a brush and an airbrush.

[Return Home] [Top of Page]

3. How long does it take to make one?

The actual paintings can take from a week to nine months, depending on the complexity. Some of my earlier works were done in less than a day. I seem to be slowing down and getting more detailed as I go.

[Return Home] [Top of Page]

4. Where do you get the ideas?

Sometimes the universe just drops an image into my hands. Usually, however, I am asking a question or questions about how something works, when an answer occurs to me in the form of an image. It is of this image that my paintings are born of.

[Return Home] [Top of Page]

5. What are you trying to accomplish with your work?

The intent of my work is to challenge the viewer so they may expand their perspective of reality.They are to make us bigger as we examine our own edges. The more we expand to realize what we are and how big that really is, the quicker our pain as a race will cease and our triumph as individuals will be realized.

[Return Home] [Top of Page]

6. What got you started painting this way?

When I was about twenty-two I read an essay by Aldous Huxley that cleared some things up for me. It was entitled,"Visionary Experience" and appeared in the book,"The Highest State of Consciousness", edited by John White. Within, Huxley poses the question,"Why are precious stones precious?" His answer spoke to my heart,"... they remind us of something which is already in our minds. They remind us of this paradisal,more-than-real world which sometimes is glimpsed consciously by some people and which I think most people have had slight glimpses of, and which we are all, in some obscure way, aware of on an unconscious level." He spoke of their glowing, crystal nature and the description of the Garden of Eden in the Book of Ezekial, the stones of fire.

I had many visits to this world of "stones of fire" when I was a young child.None in my acquaintance could identify or make reference to this wondrous place I had seen repeatedly. I assumed that anything this beautiful would be well known to our society and if they didn't know of it, it must be a defect within myself. Huxley validated my sanity and vision since childhood in a few paragraphs. Grateful I am for this.

I wanted to know more about this'parallel universe' of 'crystallized light' and so I began asking questions with images. I used clear acrylic sheet as my canvas to remind my viewer of this crystal world. This is why I paint in reverse and why my images appear not of this world.

[Return Home] [Top of Page]

7. How long have you been painting this way?

I started painting professionally in 1973 after I developed my basic reverse painting techniques in my last years of college.

[Return Home] [Top of Page]

8.What is your religious background?

I was raised as Christian and have absorbed other faiths as my spiritual curiosity grew. I consider myself of no particular religion yet a part of each is familiar to me.

[Return Home] [Top of Page]

9. What makes you do this?

With a few paragraphs Aldous Huxley relieved years of doubt and confusion in myself. Perhaps I may be fortunate enough to help someone as I have been helped. I see this great expansion of awareness we are witnessing as fundamental for our very survival as an evolving race.

[Return Home] [Top of Page]

10. What books do you read?

I like to read books that attempt to explain, map and enlarge my view of the cosmos. I have put together a brief list of books that have influenced me at different times in my quest. Most are quite basic, some are not. Enjoy!

Contact Information:

You can reach the artist by e-mail at: fflong@peop.tdsnet.com

Rick Long
21463 Scenic Drive
Mentone, AL 35984
1-205-634-4724

[Return Home] [Top of Page] [About the Artist] [Purchase Info]

Questions and Answers about the Art of F.F.Long

1. What is this?

2.How is this done?

3. How long does it take to make one?

4. Where do you get the ideas?

5. What are you trying to accomplish with your work?

6. What got you started painting this way?

7. How long have you been painting this way?

8.What is your religious background?

9. What makes you do this?

10. What books do you read?

Contact Information:

Questions and Answers
about the
Art of F.F.Long