SELF-PORTRAIT
I present this work first so you can get some idea of what I look like.
Other than alternating painting, drawing, sculpture, there is no particular
order to the works that follow on this site. If you choose to stop at them
all, you'll begin to see the bigger picture.
In 1984, I entered an Academy to begin the serious study of drawing and
painting. I was producing a lot of good work at the time, but always felt
I didn't have the credentials , so to speak, to do my own thing. I thought
if I could demonstrate that I had acquired the traditional skills, then I
would have the license to do whatever I chose. While the Academy was
successful at broadening my knowledge of technique and materials, it was
equally successful at oppressing my creativity, and though I acquired the
credentials I had sought, I had nothing of interest to say. So, I became a
portrait painter. I made some nice works, and even some money. All around
me people were pleased, but I knew something was wrong, and every now and then
a leak would spring in the dike.
This self-portrait was produced on the morning of January 7, 1987. It was
produced in a moment of sheer madness; call it a temporary sanity, when
I became totally disconnected from all the things which normally had any
meaning. I was compelled to paint. I sat before a mirror and quickly lay-in
the broad masses in acrylic - bright orange, brown, and grey-blue.
Over this I used, primarily, straight grey oil paint to draw in the form with
a touch or two of purer blue, burnt umber and alizarin. Working feverishly,
like a man possessed, which in hindsight I'm sure I was, the whole thing
was completed in two hours or less. For an Academician, this was an act of
unbridled anarchy, and so, a very honest work.
This work is in my collection.
Your comments and questions are welcomed. E-mail me.