Self-taught visionary artist William Fields creates a magical place with his ornate, dream-like drawings characterized by swift, dynamic pulses of color and form.

Grounded in his lifelong study of a multitude of philosophical and spiritual traditions, including Gnostic Christianity, Hermetic science, Buddhism and Shiva Tantra, Fields refers to his large pastel-and-Prismacolor drawings as the culmination of 40 years of effort and meditation.

The Winston-Salem native has been documenting his otherworldly visions and out-of-body experiences in what he calls the "Illuminations Suite," a collection of more than 100 figurative representations of his spiritual encounters during the past 10 years.

Fields' current exhibition, "Cosmogenesis," presented courtesy of Luise Ross Gallery in New York City, is on display through July 7 at Winston-Salem's contemporary art gallery 5IVE & 40RTY.

Uniting the space between consciousness and the ethereal, "Cosmogenesis" explores the sacred balance of transformation with a selection of 12 large-scale drawings from the "Illuminations Suite" collection.

Fields weaves a synergetic universe with his pictures -- an existential place where gods, goddesses, animals and spirits mesh and multiply in a confluence of energy, laden with alchemical alphabets, Kabalistic symbolism and Egyptian mythology.

His compositions are harmoniously balanced with dense, intricate areas of bold, fluid lines constricting and releasing into expanses of soft, pastel colors and glowing forms.

With his work "Hermes Trismegistus," Fields builds a multifaceted subjective portrait of the famous archetypal figure through repetitive, obscure and tightly wound imagery and patterns.

Decorative human faces and body parts appear to melt and squeeze together, becoming vibrant, psychedelic mountains converging to resemble an abstracted human silhouette.

Fields describes his drawings as "psychic portraits" because he creates them from unseen visions that he experiences in a trance-like state. "They're reflections of what I see and feel spiritually," he said.

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