Dark Metra Print

Why do any of us do the things we do? In the grand scheme of things, all of us have quirks, habits, and predispositions that determine our favorite foods, mode of dress, and even our favorite Beatle. It can be difficult to discern exactly why we lean one way or another. This enigmatic ambiguity is amplified even further when we try to identify the source of our creative impulses and how they translate into the way we see the world why we work the way we do. ​ Allow me to outline a few major themes as I try to connect the dots. ​ Foundations Since my fine arts training was pre-digital, my foundation work was in the traditional media of painting, drawing, and photography. I was in Boston at this time, studying at the SMFA, and looking at a lot of late Guston, Rauchenberg, as well as Ross Bleckner and Donald Baechler. I was also reading my share of Greenberg, Rosenberg, (as a dutiful undergraduate student of the 1980s), as well as relative newcomer Donald Kuspit. All this had me thinking about how to exert an expressive presence in the work, while striking a personal balance between figuration and abstraction. Rosenberg talked about abstract expressionism as being an "event" that chronicled a physical encounter between artist and materials, where the resulting painting was merely a souvenir of the occasion. I loved that idea. My work aspired to be expressionistic and organic, exerting mark making, evidence of hand, and a tangible physicality. One of my mentors in graduate school was fond of saying that "...it's not what it IS, it's how it FEELS." I loved that idea too. ​ But I was also a photographer who was in love with the power of images and the process of image making. As Guston himself said when he transitioned from abstraction to figuration, "We are image-makers and image-ridden... we work until we vanish." Like Philip, I couldn't escape the images in my work. When digital rolled around in the late 1990s, I was totally hooked. I was working for a tech manufacturer at the time and had access to early high-end digital cameras, printers, and advanced equipment, and I was fascinated with the speed, precision, and repeatability of the digital photography process. And yet despite all this, and even though I received high marks for my photography skills in undergrad and the Yale Summer School, I still considered photography a sideline to my core focus of painting and mark-making.