Self-portrait
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
I am a sculptor who likes to draw and paint. My Art is social, environmental and mystical. The social relates to matters affecting human welfare and human society. The environmental is my concern with the impact of human activities on the natural environment. The mystical is the hidden meaning in my art, and may be difficult to explain or understand. A work of art should try to have “Soul”.
I mix a lot of stuff together in my work, art historical references, photography, drawing, acrylic paint, airbrush, inkjet, collage, and 3-D objects. I design, fabricate and finish the individual frame surrounds which are an extension of the image. The paintings are narrative, depicting scenes before or after a critical event. My sculptures and drawings follow the same train of thought.
My youth was spent moving up and down the West Coast with my Naval Military family. Later, as an art student at the University of California, Fresno, I was fortunate to participate in the guest artist-in-residence program and studied under Bob Grosvenor, Richard Artschwager, Judy Chicago, Sam Gilliam, Richard Nonas, Stephan Antonakis, and Charles Gaines.
After receiving my MFA in sculpture, I completed the fabrication and installation of a 60-ton, six-unit, cast concrete sculpture titled “Sweet Sixteen,” which still stands on the campus today.
SWEET SIXTEEN, 1974
60-ton cast concrete. The University of California, Fresno, CA
13’ 10” (H) x 16’ (W) x 23’ (L)
Grosvenor and Artschwager encouraged me to move to New York City and in 1976 I did. I built a studio in a downtown TriBeCa loft where I lived, made art, had shows, and helped raise a family for 25 years. Downtown 1976 was a commercial area with few amenities, and on weekends it was a ghost town. I witnessed and participated in the rebirth of NYC and the arts.
The Downtown Real Estate BOOM was devastating to the pioneer artists. My building was the first to have the owner-landlord penalized by the New York City Loft Board for harassment of the tenants after a lengthy court battle.
I started out as a minimalist. Over time, I was influenced by the Dadaists, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Robert Morris, Jim Dine, Red Grooms, H.C. Westerman, and Richard Artschwager, among others.
My family lived in the 9/11 “Ground Zero” zone, and our top-floor loft windows faced the towers. Prior to that disaster, the Twin Towers sometimes merged into my artworks and proved prophetic in timing and execution. Some examples are the 1995 cover of “The Sciences” Magazine and the 1988 painting “Up the Hudson,” with the river turned blood red.
1995 The Sciences magazine
UP THE HUDSON, 1988
68" (H) x 55" (W) x 18" (D), mixed media, frame by artist
GROUND ZERO Landscape, NYC #1, 1988
8" (H) x 8" (W), India ink on paper target sheet
Before that event, I began a series of nine paintings, thinking they would be in my next Solo Show. That changed after 9/11, when all the images I started went from daylight scenes to nighttime. It marked the beginning of the “Anti-Series”. They were worked and re-worked many times over. The “Anti-Series” was my reaction towards violence, war, radical extremes, the art market, and contributed to my self-exile and reluctance to show my art publicly. Times have changed. It’s going to be a very interesting future for us all.