A Walk With Obama Painting

Richard Diebenkorn and Barack Obama My painting “A Walk With Obama” seems to have created an artistic meeting between President Obama and Richard Diebenkorn. I made the oil on panel artwork as a study for a larger scale painting that I am in the process of creating. I finished this small piece just before I left Southern California for my long drive to The Other Art Fair in Dallas, Texas. I was traveling alone, so it was nice having Obama with me. For much of the journey, the artwork sat in an open box to let the thickly brushed oil paint dry. There was plenty of time to think and reminisce on the long drive. I often thought about when in high school, I would often visit the Phillips Collection in Washington DC. I felt at home in DC. In many ways I was much more comfortable going from my classes at the Corcoran School of Art to the Phillips in Dupont Circle than I was traversing the suburban steppes of Northern Virginia where I lived. We were in NOVA because my dad was stationed at Headquarters Marine Corps in Arlington, Virginia. During World War II, Diebenkorn also served in the Marine Corps. From 1943 until 1945, he was stationed at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. During that time,Diebenkorn often visited the Phillips Collection in Washington DC. According to the Richard Diebenkorn Foundation, “He internalized influences from Cézanne, Julio González, Paul Klee, Joan Miró, Mark Rothko and Kurt Schwitters; certain key paintings, such as Matisse’s 1916 Studio, Quai St. Michel at the Phillips Collection were especially compelling for him.” Matisse’s Quai Saint-Michel creates an architecture of lines that seems to pre-figure Diebenkorn’s Ocean Park paintings. The painterly scaffolding in Matisse’s painting is transported to Santa Monica, California and put into the service of an American vision. I can imagine Diebenkorn almost giddy in the bounty of painting in front of him. I went to art school at UCLA as an undergraduate, searching for the spirit of Diebenkorn who had taught there in the 1960s. I didn’t meet Diebenkorn at UCLA, but I did eventually move to San Francisco after graduate school at NYU — perhaps in an artistic search for clues left by the Bay Area Figurative movement that Diebenkorn helped engender. As his health failed, Diebenkorn painted less but continued to create etchings at Crown Point Press in San Francisco. One morning on a walk from my Market Street loft where I lived and painted in the 1990s I spotted Richard Diebenkorn leaning up against a BART entrance watching the cable car turnaround across Market Street. He was captivated by the movement of the conductors as they spun the car around on a giant wooden turntable. I stopped, leaned up against a wall, and flipped through art writer Robert Hughes’ book “Nothing If Not Critical” until I reached his essay on Diebenkorn. I read slowly, pausing often to gaze up at Diebenkorn as he gazed at the forms moving across Powell Street. Eventually, I closed the book, walked over and thanked Richard Diebenkorn for his art and inspiration. He smiled and tears seemed to well up in his eyes, as he said “Thank you. I am glad that my work inspires you. Is your studio nearby?” I nodded and tried to say something “about the interplay between figuration and abstraction in his work.” Diebenkorn was frail at this point and seemed to know that he didn’t have much longer to live. I didn’t want to take him away from his moment alone in the morning light on Market Street. I thanked him again and moved on. Richard Diebenkorn died soon after in 1993. I didn’t mention the USMC connection to Diebenkorn that day in 1992, but I often thought about it. I wasn’t sure how my early years rolling in the dust of Combat Town in Camp Pendleton would inform my art. It seems that most artists have a childhood memory that continually resurfaces in their artwork. I had found camouflage paint sticks and learned a lot about discipline and hard work. As Elyn Zimmerman remembered in her thoughts about Diebenkorn as a teacher — “intensity, focus, and hard work.” I also remembered the Evening Parade at the Marine Corps Barracks in Washington DC. I remembered the rich light of dusk on the green lawns at the barracks. The same light that was also falling on the White House. Dusk and green. Obama and Diebenkorn.

Painting:Oil on Wood

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:5 W x 7 H x 1.5 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.