ARTIST’S STATEMENT
As a child, taking buses in Brooklyn was part of my daily life. I remember when the buses pulled to the curb, and before hopping aboard, I examined how the posters on its sides were made. I was amazed by how giant ink dots, larger than my fingernails, consisted of just a few basic colors. Viewed up close they appeared to be a chaotic mess, but as I backed farther away they magically resolved into full tonal clarity. Thus, early on, I had discovered the ”resolution effect” — the ability of the eye and mind to automatically resolve limited and fractured information into images of great clarity and depth. This discovery has remained a source of endless fascination to me.
Certainly, many painters have utilized fragmentation and the resolution effect for more than a century, from George Seurat to Chuck Close. And of course Picasso’s approach to fragmentation dominates the history of abstraction. But I have become obsessed with a new approach to image deconstruction that utilizes the power of the computer, enabling me to create images that would be virtually impossible to produce using more traditional mediums. One of my goals in each piece is to recapture that same magical moment of visual realization I felt as a child interacting with bus broadsides.
My process is painstaking. There is no magic program or button on the computer that spits out these digital images. Typically I spend weeks creating an image – from choosing and planning an image, to deconstruction, and finally creating the geometry, rhythms and final colors. Each image contains anywhere from 10 to more than 40 layers, typically containing many thousands of individual color-filled shapes. In short, I construct the image square by square, dot by dot, and then fill each shape individually with a flat color.
I care deeply about how one actually looks at my images and I focus on creating tension between the viewer and the image. My objective is to create images with great interactive stopping power that exist and work on two separate planes simultaneously; up close and abstract, distant and resolved. These images encourage movement. As viewers squint, move back and forth, and view at angles, they play with how they see and comprehend an image and its internal abstracted patterns, rhythms and space.
In this age of inescapable image bombardment, most images are quickly viewed and disregarded. My objective is to create images that compel the viewer to stop, interact, and be drawn into an extended act of looking. I first identify subjects that resonate with me. I then transform the images, anticipating viewer interaction within the perceptual context of their own thoughts and feelings about that subject.
Currently, I continue to work on a range of images that naturally follow and extend the themes represented in this presentation: portraits, landscapes/nature, and iconic images. While increasingly interested in creating images that are more abstracted and stand on their own without immediate image recognition (like Abalze), I continue to be fascinated with figurative imagery, particularly old family photos (both mine and for client commissions).
BIO
Both my father and grandfather earned their livings as artists; my grandfather was a portrait painter in Russia, and eventually in Michigan when he immigrated in the 1920’s, and my father was a textile designer in New York. I began my career as an artist as well, focusing on graphic design and art direction and a range of entrepreneurial ventures until my late 30s, when I shifted toward the business-side of the media world where I knew I could earn more money. I made a pledge to myself back then that one day I would earn enough so I could chuck it all and focus once again on making art, and be able to so on my own terms. Ten years ago I was able to do just that. I established a studio in Shelton, CT and since then I’ve created two distinct bodies of work. During the first seven years I focused on a series of large translucent blue abstract oil paintings that utilized a landscape-based vocabulary (represented then by Westwood Gallery, SoHo, NY). At the conclusion of that series I decided to completely shift my medium and imagery to the images shown in this presentation. To date I’ve created approximately 30 of these images.
C/V
• Born: Brooklyn, NY / 1951
• High School of Art & Design, NY / 1964-8
• School of Visual Arts, NY / 1968-70
• The School of The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA / 1987-88
• Instructor: School of Visual Arts, NY/1975-76; Fairfield University, CT / 1977-78
JURIED SHOWS / ART FAIRS*
• Blue Hill Art & Cultural Center, NJ / 2007
• Westwood Gallery, SoHo, NY / 2007
• Art Miami / 2008* (through Westwood Gallery)
• Art Miami / 2009* (through Westwood Gallery)
• Love Show / Westport Arts Center, CT / 2011
• Solos Show / Westport Arts Center, CT / 2012
PRINT QUALITY / PRINT SIZES / NUMBERED EDITIONS
The way in which I build my images insures zero loss of clarity, no matter what size the print is. Thus, the archival digital prints, produced on heavy cold-press, acid-free paper with archival inks, always appear razor sharp, looking as if the color squares and dots were silk-screened. My images were conceived to be shown in a larger print format, from approximately 2’ to 5’ wide (to enhance the resolution effect), but they are compelling in smaller print sizes as well. Each image will typically be produced in 3-4 sizes, and each edition (image and size) is limited, numbered, and signed.
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