ARTIST’S STATEMENT

        I became an artist as soon as I received my first crayon. By the age of two I was into action art and pumping the depths of abstract expressionism. Soon after I was breezing through the fundamentals of minimalism. Then, having quickly conquered the square, the triangle and the circle, I pushed on to explore the complexities of abstraction. My early attempts at representational art were characterized by inventions or abstract constructs, which enabled me to explore the fundamentals of cubism, symbolism, expressionism, futurism, suprematism, and Dadaism. By the age of four I was heavy into pop art, cartooning and exploring the possibilities of surrealism.

       By my 8th birthday I had mastered most of those ‘isms’ that concerned and preoccupied the artists of the 20th century, and was eager to move on to the complexities of what is commonly called realism.

       I’m not sure when I became a conceptualist, but it could have been while I was contemplating a figure on a billboard and made the realization that it was not a real person. I was very small, and I remember repeating to myself over and over, "I am real. That is a picture." I was so taken with this perceptual reasoning that a picture was an illusion of reality that my art became an excuse for experiments to create convincing illusions of reality. From that time on, the course was clear, that my art would be a quest for believability. What, I thought, could be more exciting and challenging for a simple human being than to make a stone breath or fashion a flat panel into a portal to a imaginary world of beauty and order? What efforts of an individual are worthier than those that glorify humanity and praise life and reality by transforming visible form into precious art? This then, was my goal, my purpose and my life.

        As a conceptual artist, I found little help from teachers who lacked skills for creating believable images. Since cognitive drawing skills were no longer required of those calling themselves artists, drawing instruction became inconsequential. The artistic landscape was further sullied by a belief that mechanical imaging was an alternative to drawing and the development of an artistic eye could be obtained without recourse to this skill. It should not be surprising to anyone that an artist with academic credentials, which include a Master of Arts degree, would consider himself a self-taught artist. But I do.

        Today my art is more nourishing and vital than ever. It is about my life, loves and fantasies. It is about quality and awareness. It is about truth and the imagination. It is about respect and empathy. It is about knowledge and the search for knowledge. It is about giving and sharing. It is about dignity and noble thoughts. It is about the character and personalities of individuals.

        The artist’s eye is not a gift. It is a human potential which all people have and when nurtured properly can bring great rewards to humanity as well as the artist. My greatest pleasure is and must be to continue to sharpen my eye and strengthen the bond to life and reality. My second greatest pleasure is to help others to develop an artist’s eye.

Let me know what you think. Do you understand what I think I know ?

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