When I think about an artist statement, frankly I cringe. Memories of failed attempts in undergrad and graduate school make me think of all the time I thought I could adequately put my work into fluid and knowable terms. I now feel confident in how to write and speak about my work – but this…
It was because of visiting the trails around the State Line Look Out in the Alpine, NJ Palisades that my Sunday painting practice took center stage in my work. Even though I was born near the Hudson Palisades, I had never visited the state park until I had lived in Brooklyn for over ten years.…
I have never been an artist that works in one method and with one medium. For years I grappled with this, thinking it was an inadequacy. I now realize, it is my strength and that the reality is, very rarely artists work in a 1 to 1 method. I think being able to be flexible…
Neither of my parents are artists, nor any of my extended family. There were no artists from generations past to which my artistic interests were compared, no inherited traits from a creative Aunt Clara. When I was a kid in the 80’s my father was working as an accountant. And yet…. despite his identification as…
I was really close to my grandfather on my mother’s side and spent much of my youth with him and my grandmother, as my mother worked the late shift at the local hospital and they watched me and my brother every night. We also had dinner with them every weekend until I left for graduate…
One might make the mistake of thinking that the flames of creativity are fanned by open-endedness, ultimate freedom, no rules, starting from scratch, tossing out the baby with the bathwater, bulldozing the metropolis so as to construct another one in its place according to a subconscious dreamscape, embodying your inner child, dragging your knuckles and…
As a follow up to my previous post, I thought it would be interesting to discuss a few more drawings that deal with the lottery, in more detail – how I thought through them in terms of process, and how I translated the ideas I have about the lottery into works that both reflect these…
For this post I thought I’d talk about a drawing I’m currently working on and discuss how it has evolved over time. My son is 8 years old and one part of his math homework is completing word problems. These are math problems where the main information is presented in narrative form. A fairly simple…
Like everyone, I get a ton of spam emails. And I often respond. I’m interested in how these emails, particularly those that attempt to elicit a visceral response, utilize language that appeals to our basic human impulses – they’re like technological fish food attempting to hook us into an emotional response based on our most…
Part 1. For this drawing, take 3 large pieces of paper, turn off the lights, and make drawings in your room, at night, in the dark. Begin by toning your paper with a middle grey by rubbing an even amount of charcoal all over your paper; push it into the surface. Use your eraser to…