"Greenly invented the Primary Transitional Symbol out of the personal need to balance the energies implicit in natural forms. (It is of interest that a parallel development in science may be cited. In the September 1965, Scientific American published previously unknown geometric configurations called the supercircle and superelipse which Piet Hein, Danish mathematician, writer and inventor, arrived at through mathematical computation and computer research. More than a year earlier, Greenly, unaware of Heins' calculations and working in almost complete obscurity in McLean, Virginia, developed similar configurations as an outcome of experiments with organic shapes made during the period 1961-64.)

By 1967 his work had evolved into constructions of transparent glass and aluminum in which light reflections created intangible extensions into space of the concrete shapes of the material. Because of the multiple images caused by reflections, the tangible objects at times appeared to dissolve and to be projected into space beyond, setting up an energy exchange as compelling as it was illusive.

Concerned as always with the communication of energy exchange between the natural world and the world of the spirit, Greenly perceived that the concrete existence of an art object was not indispensable to the message, that, if given enough clues, the mind can project ideas into reality. He began making drawings of huge geometric shapes rising from or suspended over natural landscape.

Realizing the superior impact of photography in creating an illusion to natural reality, he soon used photographs to achieve the images he sought. Over photographic images of landscapes, Greenly imposed abstract "energy" of apparently great scale, creating "intangible sculpture". Above these real, but generalized, poetic landscapes are "bars", clearly incorporeal, which set up an almost electrical tension or exchange of energy with the land below. Clearly, these works are part of the same search that led to the discovery of the Primary Transitional Symbol. Nature, space, energy, time, and spirit are united in each work to build an art form that is endlessly evocative and free from the struggles of the ego that created or perceives it."
Thomas W. Leavitt, Director, Andrew Dickson White Museum of Art, Cornell University
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