Blog

This blog traces my influences, studio practice, learning, and teaching of art.

Portrait of Brian Walker

A friend commissioned this portrait in 1980. We had a photo session on the roof of his apartment in Hell's Kitchen. That is the world trade center in the background. Brian was at first freaked out that his eyes were closed. I was making a contrast of inner & outer worlds. New York is so crazy that looking inward is one way to find peace. What freaks me out, now, is that lone white cloud at the top of the towers.

"Horse"

This circus painting is quite large: 96" x 48". The three ring circus idea is mashed up with transparent planes and a gold leaf outlined horse head. The picture is from a slide as are all of the circus paintings in the following posts.

"Space Cadet"

This painting was photographed from the side, at an oblique angle. (that's electric conduit on the wall). The blue checked strip on the right is painted on the side. I loved playing with the rotation of a circle/elipse. As the viewer walks by, the elipse rotates and becomes foreshortened.

"Grecian Urn Table"

The notion to make perspective unusual and possibly change the way we look at things was exciting. I took two courses at Yale: Chinese Painting of the Sung, and Japanese Narative Scroll Painting. The Asians used paralell orthagonals to express a world that was expansive. This contrasted sharply with the Western use of converging orthagonals and one point perspective, where the viewer was the center. What would it mean to have the orthagonals diverge? An other worldly space is created. Byzantine icons frequently use this divergence.