New Paintings Winter 2012

Concurrent with working on my dumb boxes, I worked on four large (4 ft x 6 ft) acrylic on canvas paintings.  Two were based on the dumb box inspired by my Aunt Helen's death from leukemia, back in the fifties:

As often happens, I destroyed the lesser one and saved the one I liked:

The other two employed texts, and once again, I destroyed the lesser and saved the stronger:

Collection: Martin Muller

A Quiet Girl [Dumb Box 21]

Throne for a New Ubu [Dumb Box 20]

Collection: Martin Muller

Island 02 [Dumb Box 19]

Waken [Dumb Box 18]

I see the influence of all those Burma Shave signs placed along the highways of America during my youth.  And while I respect the idea that sculpture should work from all sides, in the round, the psychological effect of a front and back can produce an aide for the way someone is to look at a piece.  Or, at least, that's the way I see it.

One-eyed Afternoon [Dumb Box 17]

Collection: Fifi White

Nino Rota Heard with One Finger in the Ear [Dumb Box 16]

After posting Dumb Box 11, Fellini Directs Juliette of the Spirits, I realized it was Nino Rota's music even more than Fellini's direction that had inspired me.  I've worn out three 33rpm lps of the album, a tape or two, and I've been searching for a cd of the soundtrack.  I like it so much, its pace and orchestration are so crazily frenetic, so schizoid-sounding to me, so like real-but-not-real-life, that sometimes it's just too much; at those times I have to stick a finger deep in one ear.

Collection: Rachel Maddow and Susan Mikula

Make Happy [Dumb Box 15]

In about 1984 I stumbled onto a phrase in a religious/spiritual text that I still find compelling.  It was a commandment, more-or-less, or a reason-to-be: Make happy.  I've used it in a number of paintings and books because I appreciate the thought and like being reminded of it.  Of course, like most things from spiritual writings, it is totally un-hip––and that appeals to me, as well.

Collection: Lain York

Twart [Dumb Box 14]

Enough said?



May 2013 Update: The box as pictured above no longer exists.
It has evolved.
It now looks like this: