A word of explanation:
At about the age of 35, I ceased to feel a need to fill
paper with images, and I more or less
stopped drawing for 17 years. In 2010,
however, a friend pointed out that this was precisely when I became a father—and
I had never seen the connection! But once
it was pointed out, the only thing to do was to start again.
You’ll see that everything I’ve done since 2010 is quite
different in style from the older stuff.
These abstracts and quasi-abstracts represent (for me) the esthetic
substructure of the more figurative pieces of the past. And they are far more homogenous in style and
medium. I won’t say much more than that,
because I don’t hold with artists explaining their work. My attitude is, “You’re goddam lucky I give
you a title—and if you don’t agree with it, that’s fine too.”
Nevertheless.
I think that my artistic influences, throughout my
oeuvre, are fairly obvious. But I am
always asked about another “influence”: whether I take drugs to stimulate
imagery. No, I do not. But there are two factors that may account
for this impression.
First, I wear a rather stiff ocular prescription that causes
all straight lines to appear bent. In
fact, it was only in college that I discovered not everyone sees the world this
way. Thus, in my newer material, the straight
lines represent a kind of breakout for me; you’ll find very few in the older
work.
Second, already in toddlerhood I was fascinated by the
patterns you can see when you rub your eyelids.
I even had a recurring dream that I saw them in the sky. So my attachment to certain abstract shapes and designs
goes way back.
For further interpretation, you’re on your own!
