EARLY PAINTINGS Main

After years of early classical training and then finding myself at a college that seemed to prize abstract expressionism, the big question in my development was where to go, how to get there, least begin to understand it all. There was a multitude of early explorations.

After many drawing-paintings, there were the simplified geometric shapes that danced about on canvases. Inevitably, even geometric shapes reemerged as figure.

In the early 80’s I continued to paint. When I covered a surface of one of my canvases, which lead to instead of painting things (pictures), I would just paint things . Rather than make paintings of things, I’d just paint the things themselves. It seemed more direct and honest. As well it added a protective layer to glass pieces.

This idea of painting things seemed to keep came up again and again. Somehow it seemed a natural impulse. When I was in graduate school I gave myself the giant task of synthesizing all my years of artistic explorations into one in effort to find my style? Finding or forcing ones style when you are young is like finding your way out of a paper bag or though the forest in the dark without only an inkling of a clue!

Having a giant box full of oil paints, one day in the studio with the task appearing too daunting, I squeezed the entire box of paints into one giant pile of oil paint and began to mix it all together. It was a physical mixing of all things together rather than a stylistic mix on canvas. So then what do I do next? My next natural impulse was to cover all three of the large canvases I had in my studio with this rich black paint and did so with a palate knife. The canvases went though a few incarnations and variations but ultimately ended up back to just three large canvases covered with this rich black paint mixture. One of the incarnations or explorations of this work was having these three very dark blackish canvases, and feeling that somehow they needed something. Sound, light and can’t remember the last one. I’d put a motorcycle headlight on one and the other came accompanied with sounds of my motorcycle starting with quite a thunderous sound. Ultimately they were titled, Box of Paint I, II, & III.

Maybe the idea of finding your way as an artist in the early days is like being in a 30 story building and you keep going to every floor and open every door not knowing what your looking for or even what you’ll find.

In the 90’s I had a large studio on the ground floor of 195 Chrystie Street in New York City. I devoted most of my time to painting and working on the solid cast sculptures. In the back of the studio I had a large table with dozens and dozens of paintings on paper. When people would visit the studio, I’d lay them on the floor and flip though dozens of these paintings “Endless Road Of Lovers, Picasso Peers Out” was the one painting that absolutely everyone made me stop on. To this day, this was never my favorite painting, but appeared to be everyones who ever came to the studio. The blue pastel used in the drawing-painting was from extra pieces of pastel I‘d made while making the solid cast pastel sculpture, “Blue Chip - American Artist”.

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2000 -2001