Artist Talk notes

What I prepared to say, not what I said.

I come from 1940’s Abstract Expressionism. When I was six years old in 1949, I painted like Jackson Pollack, who I saw in Life Magazine: gestural, patterned, abstract. When I didn’t have paint, I drew like a kid: figurative, narrative.

My Dad was a photography hobbyist. He demonstrated image composition. I assisted him in the darkroom and in studio lighting, primarily for portraits.

When I was nine years of age, in 1953, I began regularly visiting L.A. Museum of Art, before it became LACMA, studying the contemporary painting exhibits.

My painting became figurative after seeing The San Francisco School in 1957 at LACMA. 

In high school, while continuing to do well in Art classes, I got involved with the school’s Theater Department. I designed sets and lighting, programs and advertising.

Outside of school, I painted and drew from life and from photographs.

At college I was an abstract painter and a life drawer. I continued these two practices after graduation until I was about 34, I stopped drawing from live models. From this point on I exclusively paint from photo references.

Contemporary influences:

Armsrock

Judith Supine

Jadé Fadojutimi

Adrian Ghenie

Historical influences:

Botticelli

Caravaggio

Delacroix

Monet

Matisse

Bellows

DeKooning

Bacon

Park

Rauschenberg 

Francis

Basquiat