Chaos Painting

These are not portraits. Rather they are entirely conjured faces without any specific person in mind when they magically began appearing decades ago in my composition books back in elementary school. They began reappearing in my professional work during the 2000 Census when I would drive my car onto unknown streets and imagine the faces of the people who lived in random houses. I conjured 369 faces about five years ago when I began drawing on my iPad. Prints of those faces were on exhibition at the Banana Factory in Bethlehem PA. I gave an artist's talk when someone stood up and declared, "I know who that is!" "How could that be? I don't know who that is" Yet people insist they know the subjects. I asked people in the audience to take a Post-It and write the name of who they thought was being portrayed. No two names were alike. It occurred to me that some people feel more comfortable when they connect the dots. And I wondered how many different possible combinations there may be of eyes, noses, mouths, shapes, etc. Is it really possible to make up a face? As I look around my studio there are hundreds of faces looking back at me. While I do paint other things, it always comes back to faces. I am never bored as long as I am conjuring. For me it is magical. This one is painted on a 6' square canvas drop cloth. Why? That is what was available that day. I tacked it to my painting wall.I painted the face in the upper right corner on a piece of newsprint using water-based enamels and transferred it to the canvas. Each face is painted that way making the work a kind of monotype. IT began to build without a pre-conceived idea. It grew. Or as my father would say, "It gruesome!" The faces hovered, appeared to converse, to float, to dance, to... They express the full range of human emotions. Here is chaos. Imagine what it may be like if you were able to step into the painting which never appears the same way twice.

Painting:Enamel on Canvas

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:72 W x 72 H x 1 D in

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