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Gallery of Work
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Little Boy Blue: Elton John
(oil on canvas)
115" x 90"
$14,000
Asian Invasion: Meat Zhang Haun
(acrylic on canvas)
115" x 90"
$14,000
Mythical Hero
(acrylic on canvas)
115" x 90"
$14,000
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For my joint show with Jay Giroux at NOVA 535, the concept of ideation, has been the creative springboard for my new works. Ideation may come by mail, be found in the streets or pulled out of thin air, but it is surley linked to what already exists in the brain’s vast experiainces. Making these connections is what I find most exhilarating. Transforming that into visual expression is paramount.
Always looking to broaden my range in dealing with both subject and content, I enlist an array of conceptual styles, which remain in a state of flux. The dialoge of interest today may be superseded by a more pressing issue tomorrow and I’m very keen on following this non scripted procedure.
Background
My first week of art school in 1958 was no different than the final week of November 2004. I knew that I had found my true calling then and my future looks as bright as ever now.
Upon retirement from teaching at the University of South Florida after the summer of 2003, I was no freer than I had been my entire career as an artist. Over the years my work ethic and self-discipline carried the day under any circumstance.
There are four major phases of my career. From 1968 through 1980, I worked exclusively with intaglio, lithography and silverpoint drawing. The subject of my work during this period was other artists; some that I had printed for, others that I knew and admired. The content of this work was the collaborative process.
A divorce in 1979 led to a serious lifestyle change. I became immersed in the punk music scene (1980-1984) which included the formation of an alternative visual arts group, “Mododado”. Most viewed my work of this period as a radical shift, while a few got it right. The subject of my work changed, but the content was still founded on collaboration, now between artist/musicians and fellow hard core punkers.
I focused exclusively on painting as a solo artist. The innovative use of a chain link fence motif became my signature style (1984-1990) and again, in a deconstructive phase (1993-2002).
A dear friend, James Rosenquist, curated my 30-Year Retrospective Exhibition: 1970-2000, for the Gulfcoast Museum of Art, Largo, FL 2000. This exhibition traveled to the Lowe Art Museum, Coral Gables, FL 2001 and to the Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL 2002. Public lenders to the exhibition included the Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI, Carnegie Institute Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT and the J.B. Speed Museum, Louisville, KY.
All three phases of my career up to that point, are well illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, which was funded by grants from the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, Richard Florsheim Art Fund and the University of South Florida Publications Council.
My formative years (1958-1962) at the Center for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI, included a full scholarship after my first year of study, and culminated with a diploma. My major was painting, with a minor in printmaking. At no time during my studies did teaching ever occur to me. However, I was appointed to a teaching position at CCA (1962-1970). In 1964-65, a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award – Graphics, enhanced my printmaking research. In 1967, a Ford Foundation Grant to train as a master printer at the Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Los Angeles, CA, presented me with an alternative to teaching.
The collaborative process between artist/artisan was a unique experience for me. I soon made it my objective to elevate the collaborative effort to that of artist/artist. This was made possible with the collaborative support of Billy Al Bengston, Edward Ruscha and Ed Moses.
In 1968 I was picked up by the Brooke Alexander Gallery, New York, NY, as a hot new prospect. Then in 1970, I accepted a shop manager position at the University of South Florida's print atelier, Graphicstudio. Over the course of two years, I printed editions for James Rosenquist, Edward Ruscha, Richard Anuszkiewicz and Nicholas Krushenick. I was appointed to the USF faculty in 1972.
During my tenure, I was awarded three USF research grants (1998, 1993, 1985); a National Endowment of the Arts Grant – Graphics (1977-78); Individual Artist Fellowships, Florida Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs (1996-97 and 2001-02); and an NEA Grant through First Night International (1999-2000).
My career has been shaped by being a forward looking practitioner and by fateful decisions that in retrospect revealed their true significance. I remarried in 1991 and our daughter was born in September 1993. We divorced in November 2003 and now share in equal custody of our eleven year old daughter. As fate would have it, marriage, birth, separation and divorce have all been positive life experiences. My focus now is shared between two daughters from my previous marriage (1962-1979), my five year old grandson, my youngest daughter and my work. Parenting and painting, that's what I live for. |
