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About the artist
The early art work that I made was absolutely free. As free as a naive rebel without a clue could be. I learned a great deal in art college. I was a painter working with clearly recognizable imagery. The first series of paintings were heavy with symbolism and associations, there was very little space for formal compositional concerns. In graduate school my paintings were less figurative, more expressive and they were much more formal. It was a very prolific period in my life, producing many large wall sized paintings. After graduate school I returned to more figurative paintings. They weren't as large and they had a sci-fi quality. These works evolved into a long series of figurative paintings that were involved with the dichotomy of organic and geometric forms. I enjoyed producing these paintings for awhile and then they became forced. I had a few exhibits where I hid the image from the viewer. It was the beginning of a very conceptual time for me, eventually I sent most of the remaining paintings in the series to Green Valley (landfill). I felt free to do something new. Early in my art experience I noticed that most of the mature artists that I knew had homes packed with old art works. Nearly all their storage space was used up by their archive of personal work. One particular artist, that I had much respect for, passed away leaving behind hundreds of paintings that needed to be cared for by his family. I thought that I did not want to be in a situation like that. Whenever my collection of art work became large and burdensome I would thin it out by discarding the most deserving pieces. This action has allowed me to return to making art with renewed enthusiasm. I wanted to produce some nonrepresentational paintings. For years I tried to make the transition from figurative to nonrepresentational images. I was not very successful, I kept putting in slight references to other forms. Then one day I changed, as I was pouring out some old latex paint into a box for it to dry so that I could discard the can. For days I would occasionally check on the drying latex. I loved the forms that the thick liquid paint made in the box. I began to make forms that had a slight relief to them so that I could pour paint over them. I called these works my pour paintings. Finally, I had succeeded in making a completely nonrepresentational painting. I worked in this manner for years progressively getting more sculptural and more conceptual. I began working on art forms that I would set outside for the natural elements to alter. This was very satisfying for me. I stopped making paintings altogether and devoted all my creative efforts to these temporal conceptual pieces. That brings us to date with the tube sand objects. As you now understand I have had a wide spectrum of creative experiences that have not been sewn together with smooth transitions. In my art I have been unpredictable and have not developed a body of work that possesses consistent stylistic characteristics. I have tried to keep my creative spirit foremost in importance. |
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