The Alley Painting

I've known I was an artist since I was five when adults were commenting on my colored drawings of my dreams as visions. Later in school I used art as an escape from boredom caused by poor teachers who were sometimes mean-spirited and did not know how to make learning interesting or fun. I did enjoy entertaining the other kids with my art. In highschool I discovered my work had value when some of my work disappeared from my art class where they were hung on the wall in exhibit and were discovered on my wealthy teacher's home walls. So my tke away from that experience was that if I made something that was worth stealing, it would also be worth buying and I began to work. Since then, I have worked in many mediums for private, corporate and government clientel. Relatively self-taught, I worked as a sculptor in various mediums - bronze, gold, wood, assemblage, found items, steel and for a number of year in Redwood, sculpig lage piece with a chainsaw (and the requisite ear protectors.) Also I enjoyed working with Ink illustrations and watercolor. Painting has been very rewarding experience starting with water colors, acrylics, enamel, and mixed media. My favorite is oil paint and probably will remain. I first started with oil paints using glazes emulating the " Old Masters" and gradually got used to thicker applictions painting surreal landscape depictions. For a long time I had a desire to paint Impasto style work and made the change. I put away the brushes and began to apply oil paint with knives and trowels. I have been enjoying painting larger size abstracts in which I try to convey an emotional connection to a subconscious half-forgotten circumstance, place or environment lingering below the conscious mind as engrams. With representational art, it seems to shout it's message and can be construed as a mental intrusion on the left brain hemisphere, where the abstract appeals more readily to the right brain perceptions. Some of my paintings are very powerful and others more subtle in their effect. Presently I'm using Impasto painting technique to create my current collection of large format abstracts (many are 4'x5') and find the possibilities of layering and buiding up the 3 dimensional texture of the painting to help me in communicating the physicality of my inspiration. When a decorator is creating a MOOD in a room or space I think of that mood as a flavor. A room may cry for some hot spice, or some contemplative accent.