Abstracts
Factoring elements of reality into their component parts enables me to express my feelings without tying them to specific people, places, or things. By recombining these elements, I show connections between those feelings and tangible things that may, or may not, have similar meanings to the viewer.
JOY OF SKATING - Created for my Niece, a US Pairs Skating Amateur Champion whose talents extend to creating this website. This piece brings together seemingly separate strokes with an overarching similarity to the movement of an ice skater.
FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN - A silhouetted peak with a fiery backdrop, both dominated by a fork-wielding specter. Or perhaps a wind-tossed sea near sunset with Poseidon presiding. Take your best guess; what does it evoke in you? Remember, the title is no more than a hint at one possible interpretation.
KNEELING IN PRAYER - The beauty of abstract is its infinite flexibility and adaptability to the imagination of the viewer. My life partner, Ellen, saw this as a robed woman kneeling in prayer. My take was quite different. What matters, as with all art, is how you experience it.
YELLOW THICKET - Two dimensional plants; all yellow and evocative. But wait, there's more in the next version.
YELLOW THICKET (COMPUTER ENHANCED): This shows what can be done by emphasizing light and shading dark spaces to give a sense of three dimensions. This utilized the Legacy Art Studio Platform on a picture of the original work.
MIRO, MIRO ON THE WALL - My take on the inscrutable language used by Miro and Picasso in some their works. Of course, I don't speak exactly as they do, but there is plenty of energy, color and ambiguity in this effort.
CONSENSUS OR GROUP THINK - Many individuals make up a society, and their thoughts often converge for good or ill. The wisdom or madness of the crowd can produce great peace or chaos.
DRAGON - A simple mirrored conception of the beast created with the Legacy Art Studio Platform.
FIERY DRAGON - Also produced on the Legacy Art Studio Platform, this is a fuller, more frightening version of the mythical beast.
MUSICAL EXPRESSION - Using color to show the interrelationship between various sounds and tones. Some people actually perceive music as colors, and here the shapes give a sense of several different musical instruments.
DREAMS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS - Extremely thin Acrylic on Canvas Paper produces a watercolor effect that suits this vision of Milton's Heaven and Hell.
IF PICASSO LAID TFILLIN - Picasso's multiple abstract versions of the female form suggested to me what he might have conceived had he worn Orthodox Phylacteries.
IN ER' EAR - Based loosely on the construct of the human inner ear, this image has served as the Identifying Logo of 25 scholarly books on Hearing by Dr. Arthur Popper, whose works can be seen at the site which is linked by clicking on the picture:
MOBY DICK - The barest of representational strokes captures the life and death struggle of a man and his nemesis. This was done as an abstract expressionist exercise to see if simply using bold color, darkness and light would capture the depths of his struggle and put it in perspective.
MARDI GRAS - A watercolor attempt at capturing the mad whirl of color, music, outlandish performance and just plain energy that is Fat Tuesday.
REALITY INTRUDES - An exploration of heat and cold as expressed in the languid ennui of a beauty bathing on the beach and the harsh, taloned image of the eagle about to strike. See how many faces you can see in this acrylic work; a hidden treat I use to keep viewers engaged in my art. My friend Milton Shinberg (himself an accomplished artist and student of the mind) explained to me what I was doing, as I had not thought of it myself.
ROCKY - The soft hearted tough guy created by Sylvester Stallone and portrayed by him in the movies of that franchise. Bloody but unbeaten was the essence of this character, which I tried to capture.
SHOGUN - Warlord of medieval Japan, I constructed this from a group of randomly created spaces and shapes, then attempted to set it off against surfaces evoking wood, silk and lacquer, all of which are important in Japanese culture.
TAI CHI YIN YANG - The essence of fullness and substantiality versus emptiness and insubstantiality that are at the heart of Tai Chi. The never-ending snake eternally devouring itself is often represented as one expression of Yin & Yang. Upon retiring I began studying Tai Chi and continue to do so.
ERLKING - My take on death caused by events beyond our control. This acrylic was painted while summering on the beach in Duck, NC. The very day I laid on the final strokes, just as I finished the piece, I learned my Mother was stricken with Cancer. She died two months later.
PROGRESS OF THE SWAN - During 2020, I decided to take a watercolor class from an artist well recognized for her accomplishments in that medium, Alex Tolstoy. This piece was created in response to her assignment to paint birds. It captures for me the graceful, forward motion of the Swan.
Orange Landscape Rivers, a subterranean guitar and naked eyeball with objects exploding in every direction, all beneath a distant horizon. WTF???
No Peace Hearing demonstrators say, "No Justice, No Peace, I conceived this piece. The Hebrew letter Shin is the first letter in the word Shadai (one of the names of God), viewed by many as the representative of peace. This work reflects my take on the loud but empty noise of conflict destroying that sacred symbol.
Seed of a New Idea As the mind forms a new idea, it begins to coalesce and glow as it takes shape. Yet until it is proven it is merely a thesis, hence the question-mark, and may hold the seeds of its own destruction as hinted by the skull in its nucleus.
Capri Blue: Pthalo Blue captures the essence of this beautiful isle whose vibe is pure release and freedom. This work was created on my iPad using the Legacy Art Studio Platform while on Capri. My visit occurred soon after my wife’s death, in an effort to find surcease of sorrow.
Subatomic: After my retirement, as part of my determination to seek knowledge in Eastern Traditions (such as Tai Chi and meditation), I read the book The Tao of Physics. This piece reflects one of the many parallels of Eastern Thought and physics, namely that absolute certainty as to where something exists is impossible. The only certainty is form and emptiness.
The Lynching of America In post Civil War America, this practice was used to frighten people of color into compliance with racist social norms. While less prevalent than in earlier times, it has been replaced by the refusal of Senators, Members of Congress and Supreme Court Justices to permit enforcement of voting rights denied blacks in both the north and south. Their actions are in reality lynching the idea of America itself.
NSA - Let My People Go Since 9/11 the National Security Agency has overreached in its effort to thwart terrorism by invading the privacy of many Americans. This work was created on Legacy Art Studio to represent the way in which aggressive enforcement of laws violates the rights of all, not just those targeted.
Surreal Storm Unstretched canvas is fun to work with, especially when doing abstracts. I hung some gessoed canvas on my wall and painted this 76 inch X 52 inch take on surrealism. Many dreamlike characters and shapes occupy this space, which to me combines the freedom of wide open sky with a foreboding of a storm coming.
Miro Yin Yang Had the master of unspoken artistic language been a practitioner of Tai Chi, this could have been his view of natural balance.