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A selection of twenty-four works accompanied by the artist’s writings (click on art works to see larger image with more detail) |
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| My work becomes portraits of my struggle to answer the simple question: “What is happening right now - this instant?” How do I make sense of it? How does it make sense of me? Questions for my survival. Questions for my art. I try to expose myself... open my heart and mind to the moment. Let its energy tear through me and find its resolution in a meditation, a celebration, or a prayer. My motors are desire, joy and pain. My guides are nature, senses and spirit. My latest obsessions concern relationships, growing things, and my work with UNICEF. |
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The Quarter of Desire / 1998 oil & wax on panel 48" H x 36" W Courtesy of the Shor / McDonald Collection |
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Conversations Before the End of Time - Rwanda / 1997 oil & wax on canvas 46" H x 45 1/2" W |
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Pour Cette Touche / 1997 oil & wax on canvas 26" H x 45 1/2" W |
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Is When Still When / 1998 oil & wax on board 36" H x 48" W Courtesy of the La Rocco Collection |
I believe in an art that brings us to our senses; that is through our senses that we come to experience, through our experience that we come to thought, through our thought that we come to knowledge. If that knowledge withstands the test of the senses, we come to a wisdom that spurs a culture to a greater purpose than self-celebration. I believe in an art that serves a purpose... a mirror for society, an art that resonates the structure of the culture that produced it; to see ourselves as we are and to imagine what we want to be. An art that brings us to our senses gives us the tools to do both. I believe in an art of beauty. To grow, we must live with difficult challenges. An art of beauty seduces us into facing our most difficult truths. Giotto in “The Arena Chapel”, Goya in the “Execution of May 3”, Velazquez in “The Maids of Honor”, Picasso in “Guernica”, Rothko in “The Houston Chapel”. We fear and shun the dark side of ourselves; the shadows of our personas. Yet without shadow, with only light, we cannot see. With both our light and dark sides we are whole. An art that can bring our pains and joys to our senses in a moment, gives us a place of beauty from which to grow. | |
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Pour La Dernier Fois / 1997 oil & wax on board 60" H x 48" W |
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Dueling Desires / 1998 oil & wax on board 48" H x 36" W Courtesy of the Marmaduke Collection |
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Conversations Before the End of Time - Liberia / 1997 oil & wax on board 43 1/2" H x 49 1/2" W |
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Born on the Bayou / 1998 oil & wax on board 48" H x 36" W |
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La Vie Parisienne / 1996 oil & wax on board 60" H x 48" W |
| NOTES... DRAWING Where am I? What is the time of day? Is the air heavy with warm moistness or crackling clear and cold? What part of the season is it? Does it have a taste, a perfume? Are plants growing or dying or both? Do they smell? Are there people here? Do they smell? How do they feel? How do I feel about them? Questions. Questions. Questions... all in the drawing. A searching, poking, pounding, slashing, swooshing, splashing, searching for forms that embody those questions. Heavy? Light? Dense? Diaphanous? Is that a buzzing or a whirring sound? The questions will bring a different mark, a different material, a different color into play. All in search of forms that materialize physical and spiritual sensations. This quest usually happens through a tightly woven series of drawings, usually very different from each other, trying to work my way around my experiences -- experiences ocurring during loosely linked moments of a specific event. For example, “breathing the first breath of spring air.” I try to let the event invent me. There’s nothing like a little transformation of one’s self to make for a magical day! Let my senses make my drawing. It is through our senses that we experience, so mine is an effort to make an art that brings us to our senses. The drawing is my first encounter. The right question makes the sense make sense -- a synergy of energy, exhuberance and observation. The drawings that are resulting from these questions are like notes to me -- both notes for music and notes for writing -- notes about essences. Sometimes the notes start to talk -- to talk to one another -- or if I’m lucky, start to sing... |
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Mandela’s Mandala #1 / 1996 chalk & pastel on paper 31 1/2" H x 26" W Courtesy of the Corcoran Collection |
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Mandela’s Mandala #2 / 1996 chalk & pastel on paper 31 1/2" H x 26" W Courtesy of the Rock Collection |
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Mandela’s Mandala #3 / 1996 chalk & pastel on paper 31 1/2" H x 26" W Courtesy of the Siegal Collection |
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Hanky Panky / 1996 chalk & pastel on paper 50" H x 38" W |
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Nous Sommes #1 / 1996 chalk & pastel on paper 31 1/2" H x 26" W Courtesy of the O'Rourke Collection |
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Nous Sommes #2 / 1996 chalk & pastel on paper 31 1/2" H x 26" W |
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Nous Sommes #3 / 1996 chalk & pastel on paper 31 1/2" H x 26" W Courtesy of the Sackler Collection |
the C A T A L O G continues ---->
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