2016 Volume 1-2 Artist Statement

DUAL VIOLINS 2013 2010-2015 were extremely busy and productive years. By this time I had been working with my father for 40 years and we had lunch together almost every day. He was diagnosed in 2012 with Leukemia. seven months later he would be gone. I was torn up inside. A few days later it got much worse. My son was diagnosed with severe BiPolar and he needed extreme care. We sent him to a facility in Idaho. He stayed there for two years.

I had 4 kids, a wife, and a complex business to run. My life was a whirlwind. Yet, I was able to accomplish a lot, including 16 major works of art, and hundreds of drawings, some with watercolors and a few on silks. Plus, I published my first book called The Horse Adjutant. It is the story of a survivor of the Nazi Holocaust.

I learned a tremendous amount during this period from Computer Science to Art History. It was a non-stop adventure. Making art played a big part in my productivity. It gave me something joyful to work on which is rewarding in and of itself. The key to all of this was finding my flow. My goal became simple, To move my thinking from Swiss Cheese to Munster. It’s that easy, my goal is to fill in the gaps in my learning. To achieve this I like to study and practice with persistence and consistency every day. My favorite way to learn is by watching videos while on a treadmill. I also thrive on any kind of audio, especially podcasts, my favorite is Philosophize This! by Steven West. I find myself drawing every day wherever I go. Especially if I go to a bar to listen to music. I don’t like to drink and I don’t like to just sit there. I like to be engaged with the music while actively creating. It keeps me sharp. When I first started drawing I drew a lot from my imagination, but as I advanced it was almost exclusively drawn from life. I draw what I see but my training allows me to see things others may miss. My mind has Art History filters and modern web technologies at my fingertips. I use cubism frequently when describing a moving figure. I allow and expect mistakes. In fact, I encourage them. Mistakes are opportunities for my imagination. The best examples of these are my live drawings of musicians.

Going back to the days of timed figure drawing classes when I draw musicians I use similar techniques. I start drawing when they start playing and I stop when they stop. I work as fast as I can. letting the rhythm drive my hand. It gives me a little extra joy to share the final drawings with the musicians and the people around me when they take a break.

I started to standardize my processes and materials. I always have a drawing pad with me. I use extra soft woodless pencils (4b). They are heavy and balanced. I keep a set of them very sharp. As they quickly lose their points so I switch pencils frequently. To keep them pristine I use a high-quality electric sharpener. Once the drawing is complete, I go back over it with ink and then erase the graphite. This results in sharp professional drawings. I call these master drawings as they are the basis for anything that I can derive from them. My collection keeps growing.

To prepare for the painting I select a few of the drawings completed earlier. I do not like to redraw them on the canvas. I prefer to print them using a wide-format printer. It’s not that I can’t draw them, it is just that doing so is a tedious process that would take a lot of time and result in something less than the original drawing. Once the works are printed I stretch the canvas and frame it. I take a few of them to a framer at the same time to save on the shipping. The methods of working I have settled on are one of the keys to my productivity. I am not afraid to use modern systems. Because the unfinished paintings are already framed when I start applying the paint invariably I have lots of extra paint I just extend that onto the frame. In this way, the frame becomes bespoken, perfect for the painting.

I traveled a decent amount during these years. Here are some of the places I found myself: The Upper Peninsula of Michigan; Costa Rica; France; Greece; UK; Poland; Wash-12