Paris Window

Oil on Canvas50 x 68 Inches

Oil on Canvas

50 x 68 Inches

Paintings are a diary of an artist’s life. This was the last picture I painted before a fall. There are events in ones life that destroy you a little. Not unlike the towns tallest tree brought down by lightning, no one could believe it possible, least of all the tree. An artist benefits immeasurably from the potency of an intact ego, more essential than paint, brush and canvas. The notion of indestructibility, a chimera as it turns out. The muse at hand, a sturdy sculptural form, a construct of my former illusion. There is no doubt in her sanguine expression as she gazes into a mirror unseen and prepares for the evening ahead. The space resulting from her arms framing her head and elbow pivoting on her knee, create a passage for the background color to enter and flow throughout the picture. Her beau colic gaze is satisfied by her muliebral reflection in the cheval glass not seen. This contentedness produces a smile which the picture evolves around. So sweet is her delight as she beholds her own visage. The behemoth unfeminine hand( required to span the distance from wrist to the part of her hair)is adequately countervailed by the felicity of her expression. In ‘Parting’ no tract of paint is left unfettered. Each precinct of color is layered with tonal and hue fluctuations, textured sand and grit ,particularly the whitish body. The net effect ? it is not really white. The slight tonalities under and over the white include varying light values of every other hue in the picture inviting an interdependence throughout. I remember how I felt the night I finished this picture. I am wondering if I will ever feel that way again.

Burial at Sea

Oil on Canvas60 x 72 Inches

Oil on Canvas

60 x 72 Inches

Someone asserted “this is a narrative picture!”. Well O.K. every picture tells a story , problem is ,often not the one intended by the teller,it’s the one seen by the viewer. Such is the way of the unconscious mind. My own perceptions have slowly evolved past recognizing normal constraints of the subject in narrative art . I feel this way as member of the audience and as artist. What I enjoy most about novels and movies is seldom the intended subject. This holds true in my paintings of New York.  It is understandable that few artists are inclined to take on the city as subject, given the abundance of peripheral subject matter and the daunting amount of detail, viewer and artist easily succumb to chaos. A plethora of street paintings exist but the pedestrian’s perspective from ground up does not allow for an unfettered view of building tops. This is where the action is. Where Dionysian ego and American social aspiration meet.   To paint New York one has to be willing to re- invent the viewers line of sight, make architectural studies and paint every window. Yet without transcendent metaphor a painting New York would be only a grand exercise.     The impression of seeing it all, when one is encountering selective detail, providing the illusion of the whole, is a useful kind of math. I have come to believe much of what a painter does is to earn the interest of the audience and then conduct the attention … thus, a painters painter’s strategy. The composite interplay of technique and design add the energy of vision , magic of inspiration both are required when attempting a big picture of NY.    The girdered city fascinates and inspires awe, it engages the imagination ,it engages the dreaming and  didactic mind simultaneously.  Engineering , architecture, social order, physics and design…… a perfect opportunity to ambush the viewers precious interest with the unexpected. Dream elements are quite normal to me, they gain heightened impact by virtue of laborious quotidian detail.  Social art forms have jaded the audience with ever  special effects, hamper authentic surrealism. Films often forego the tedious nest making required by quality symbolist work. For me imagination and symbol are expressed most poignantly by an artist working alone, the primary domain of the painter and poet.     New York is the alluring dream I had throughout my childhood, from a distant place.  I continue to perceive it as I did then through the filter of imagination. I have and will continue to paint it exquisitely as possible, quite a few years hence. 

Primordia

Wood steel paint neon mixed media 55 x 55 x 9 Inches

Wood steel paint neon mixed media

55 x 55 x 9 Inches

 
Canvas of dedicated steel hinges 55 x 55 x 9 Inches

Canvas of dedicated steel hinges

55 x 55 x 9 Inches

 
Highly finished laminated woods 55 x 100 Inches

Highly finished laminated woods

55 x 100 Inches

 

Set Position

80 x 40 x 10 InchesOil on Canvas Over Sculpted Foam and Metals2003

80 x 40 x 10 Inches

Oil on Canvas Over Sculpted Foam and Metals

2003

Magdalena my daughter is a serious competitive swimmer/triathlete and I, a former trackman. The pose described in “Set Position” is that moment before the gun goes off and the stopwatch begins. It is a moment of extreme reality when body and will are motionlessly tensed in absolute anticipation. This work is a bas relief of sculpted, hard foam wrapped in canvas , primed then painted in oil. Simple forms seem to speak well for themselves. These would suggest the space soon to be left behind . The pieces forming a hill at the bottom of the work apparently supporting the three metal shapes of gold, silver and bronze (first second and third)are negative shapes selected from the studio floor remaining after sculpting the figure. The gold metal (actually polished brass )is slightly lower than the other two acknowledging the victor, a deference toward the fellow racer. The metal is fairly heavy gauge wrapped around wood armature, polished aluminum , bronze and brass. Each treated with acid and sealant to cease any oxidation. The visual impression from witch the pose is derived was etched in my minds eye after witnessing hundreds of racing starts over the years.