Portrait of Brian Walker

A friend commissioned this portrait in 1980. We had a photo session on the roof of his apartment in Hell's Kitchen. That is the world trade center in the background. Brian was at first freaked out that his eyes were closed. I was making a contrast of inner & outer worlds. New York is so crazy that looking inward is one way to find peace. What freaks me out, now, is that lone white cloud at the top of the towers.

preliminary sketch for Portrait of Brian Walker

I begin commissions with a small sketch. The basic composition, color harmony and size are planned. I like to hear feedback from the client. I can't ever remember having to change my initial ideas, but I am willing to accommodate suggestions.

"Horse"

This circus painting is quite large: 96" x 48". The three ring circus idea is mashed up with transparent planes and a gold leaf outlined horse head. The picture is from a slide as are all of the circus paintings in the following posts.

"On Both Ends At Once"

One of the first paintings I did in the Spring Street loft. I designed this to be hung from the cieling.

"Space Cadet"

This painting was photographed from the side, at an oblique angle. (that's electric conduit on the wall). The blue checked strip on the right is painted on the side. I loved playing with the rotation of a circle/elipse. As the viewer walks by, the elipse rotates and becomes foreshortened.

"Grecian Urn Table"

The notion to make perspective unusual and possibly change the way we look at things was exciting. I took two courses at Yale: Chinese Painting of the Sung, and Japanese Narative Scroll Painting. The Asians used paralell orthagonals to express a world that was expansive. This contrasted sharply with the Western use of converging orthagonals and one point perspective, where the viewer was the center. What would it mean to have the orthagonals diverge? An other worldly space is created. Byzantine icons frequently use this divergence.

"Spider Woman"

Kind of like a gyroscope, there was a spider web contraption at the circus. (I actually met a circus costume designer. Neil Saffron made it big time...in Hollywood.)

"Clowns"

This canvas is not quite a circle. Playing with the rotation of an ellipse and how the edge of a canvas stretcher disappears was fun.

"Still Life"

Could this be the first Greek vase I painted?

If one believes in past lives, no. It is fun to take photos in museums, and I went hog wild with the camera in the Met's Greek vase room. The push and pull of the cube makes this anything but still.