Things Are Exactly As They Appear, 2014, Acrylic on Canvas

What is it that prompts you to respond to a painting?
Having committed to making art every day, I’m constantly questioning and weighing the aesthetic value of the art that I create. What is it about an image that attracts you—is it really quantifiable? For myself, when I take a long look at a painting, I’m looking beyond what I suppose one might label as the aesthetic qualities of the image for a story. It carries me away. I ask myself, what is it about this image that stays with me? It’s like reading a novel that’s been captured in the blink of an eye, or the position of a hand, but it is not resolved. Two paintings that illustrate my thoughts immediately come to mind—Max Ernst’s Young Virgin Spanking the Infant Jesus In Front of Three Witnesses and Self-Portrait With Champagne Glass by Max Beckmann. Beyond the purely aesthetic qualities of these works is an unresolved moment that causes one to ask, what is going on here?
Up for discussion is my latest piece in a series that explores ice as a component of a narrative, Things Are Exactly As They Appear, 2014. To be honest, when I sketched it out I had not a thought about how the random figures might relate to each other except that the context of being under a spotlight might cast some doubt on the legitimacy of one’s presence and bring to mind some mysterious scenario.
What prompts you to respond?

untitled, 2014 Acrylic on Canvas

Two blackbirds, apparently on a nighttime stroll, stop to ponder a handbill lighted by a street light. The visual image of blocks of ice pictured on the handbill are melting and dripping down the cement wall onto the sidewalk forming a puddle. Even while standing in the puddle of water, it’s impossible to believe that a picture of ice can melt. The improbability of such circumstances defies what we know but correlates to our lack of concern with conditions that we have no intimate connection—glaciers worldwide are melting but since we can’t see it as it happens, we deny attributing the consequences to the cause!

Ken’s Somewhat Hesitant Plan for Sustainability, 2014

acrylic on canvas, 18″ x 24″

Ken, like the rest of us, is confused about sustainability. Where do we start? How do we make a plan? Interesting that Ken’s first choice was to put Barbie on ice, changed his mind, and then changed it again.