Painter of medium-sized polka dots with wide brush in oil?.........NOT...painting for self:painting for others...Three-Handed

Three-Handed   Oil on Canvas   24 x 48 x 1.5

Our cultural workings here in the US have become more and more specific.  I wouldn't be surprised if a doctor specializing in hands might further specialize in a particular digit....far-fetched with a bit of truth.  We artists are encouraged to find our "niche", a place where our work will become easily identified by others as our own.  OK.  Identifiable I can agree with.  But medium?  Or subject matter?  It's not for me.  As gallery advertising comes around, one sees entire exhibits made up of works of hazy trees, all painted quite the same but in different colors.  I love experimentation and play far too much to pigeonhole myself in that way.  I believe that my hand shows sufficiently enough in my work, irregardless of subject matter or medium, to call my own.  The choice of subject matter in works painted over a lifetime will portray that in which I have interest.  Those things I love.  My choices.

Most of my work involves a bit of deconstruction/reconstruction.  I simply love this process.  However, the more forms that are in the painting, the more the chaos must be controlled in order for the work to be visually read.  More hard edges than usual.  My goal in "Three-Handed" was the feel, the atmosphere of spring with diffused lighting that is both cool and warm.  I chose to keep the destruction of edges to a minimum, while ensuring a locking together the comb-like shapes of the three figures (seen as one shape) and the background.  This was my way of simplifying the information.  The grassy decorative strip at the bottom was printed onto the canvas using a linoleum block.  I thoroughly enjoy the combination of realistic painted with flat patterning, a love that comes from printed fabrics.  My loves come together.  I am satisfied......and extremely happy that I am not...

a painter of medium-sized polka dots painted with a wide brush in oil.