PROCESS

This is how it starts. Files of images, photographs and words. Arranged by color. Arranged by subject.

• red
• yellow
• blue
• green
• orange
• purple
• black/white
• neutral dark/light
• photographs of me
• photographs of my family
• photographs of others
• my words – unfinished stories, plays or poems (see Unfinished page)
• the words of others
• graffiti (see below)
• comics

From these files I select word, a photograph, an image, a color. The selections evoke memories. A story. A theme. I continue to pull words and images from my files. Each adding to the story.

Randomly or intentionally I make collages on the copy machine. The collages are cut or torn and placed on the canvas (or board) – creating vignettes. Over these I layer acrylic paint and markers, spray paint and stencils. More pieces of collage are added, more paint, and so it goes.
Again, randomly or intentionally geometry is added – lines, rectangles, squares and triangles.

Graffiti. Sometimes serendipity comes into play. In 2006 I was in Berlin. I was 4 when the Berlin Wall went up – so for most of my life the Wall just was. I was fascinated by the remains of the wall and the graffiti. A week later, I was walking down one of those London alleyways and stopped at a used bookstore. The owner was sitting in front and I asked him if he had any books on Berlin Wall graffiti. He reached over to the shelf next to him and pulled out a book – The Lost Graffiti of Berlin. Images from this book are favorites – and are used in each piece.