Back from Buenos Aires

When I visited my friend, Elaine, after her return from Buenos Aires, I didn’t expect to see the art she was bringing back, pieces of mine included, on the walls already. Red Aquatic had been placed down a long hallway. I’d never seen a piece of mine so far away from me, like in a museum. And I liked it. Up close it was a wow too.

We Are The Towers was painted in the days following 9/11/01. I was compelled to paint.

This was NYC, days after 9/11, silence, shock, rubble, re-calibrating. Red felt right. Red where red had not been before. A red sun. Blood sun. Red skies in other pieces.

Part of my painting process at that time was to include writing in the piece, usually on the frames. I had been saving this frame. It had a lot of room for writing. I wrote:  WE ARE THE TOWERS THAT REMAIN. TO GROW, TO LOVE, TO CHERISH LIVING IS OUR CALL TO ARMS.

Within days of its completion We Are The Towers was displayed in the window of a gallery on West 10th street.

Interestingly, the gallery was next door to the antiques vendor who sold me its frame. The vendor also directed me to a place in Chinatown to have the glass cut for the frame. Unfortunately, We Are The Towers didn’t survive the flight to Buenos Aires. You can see how detailed the puzzle was to re-assemble it in the lower right corner, in front/below the pyramid.

Glass proved too fragile and too tense a medium for me so I switched to non-breakable acetate canvases. Clear like glass. Red Aquatic is an example of acetate as canvas.