"I look for beauty, which is in the dark or maybe awkward moments as well as the light or lyrical." VD
Does the idea of transformation influence your work and process?
All art is transformation. Transformation of materials into new objects suffused with thought and emotion.
What draws you to the medium you chose?
The likelihood of accident. I started out as a printmaker, actually an etching maker. I used to do 3-color separations, using 3 plates, and working large, which for etchings was 24 x 30. The process was both indirect and complicated. Indirect because what is on the plate is a negative image. Complicated because veils of color get laid over one another and they have to be registered (aligned). Lots of accidents and unexpected beauty. I now believe that a lot of the skill of art-making is knowing when something is good and to leave it alone. After working this way for several years I began to have some modest success, getting into the Los Angeles Printmaking Society. I also got pneumonia a couple times, and multiple sinus infections. I decided I had to do painting with water-based media. Hence acrylic painting.
The breakthrough in my painting came from a Helen Frankenthaler show I saw, maybe at LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art), maybe somewhere else. Can’t remember, it was a while ago. I experimented with pouring on raw canvas. And now I pour, brush and layer paint and found objects, usually trash, dirt or dead leaves (reminiscent of Kiefer, another of my heroes). I love watching what the paint does. I struggle with getting all of it to be a coherent work of art that maybe someone else will relate to. I look for beauty, which is in the dark or maybe awkward moments as well as the light or lyrical.
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