It Became Necessary Painting

This piece was done in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in the late 1990's. I was engaged for years in a series inspired by revisiting childhood books (children's books, sports books, my parents' copy of "Four Days") and imagery in books I sought out, especially old American stock imagery, old company logos, and fossils. The photos of the Kennedy assassination and funeral, in addition to their emotional effect, evoked a mythological beginning to the modern era and its defining sense of loss. As ancient cave paintings evoke through unleashed herds the mysterious source of creation beyond the world, the Kennedy photos imply spheres of dark power that shape our condition. Far from a bleakly fatalistic mood, however, the overriding effect is one of numinous yearning, of potential transcendence, suffusing the whole.