Fright Night...

Shocking   Mixed/Paper   34.5 x 22

I am a mystery-lover.  After all, isn't making a painting somewhat like solving a giant mystery?  Each October, I have a bit of a film festival for myself....mysteries, thrillers, haunted houses and the like.  Things that go bump in the night.  Things that jar us away from the day-to-day, the status quo that can become ever-so-monotonous.  When I hoisted the work "Shocking" onto its notch on the wall recently, I was reminded of how much fun it was to create this work.  I assembled photos of shocked and surprised friends and family:  my friend Concepcion, friend Brian and his two sons Oscar and Casper, son Seth and friend Cheryl who for many years, ran the now-defunct Brimfield Post Office.  Cut linoleum blocks printed onto the paper's surface provided the "look" of a film strip.  (which has indeed become an antiquity) The work continued by arranging faces and drawing with pastels in my favorite spooky colors.  I tried to keep a vague darkness going on....as if these were faces in a darkened movie theater.  My friends had fun posing for this work, I think.  And I had a great deal of fun making it.  "Shocking" is the title.  I am slightly hidden in the upper right hand corner.