The pleasure I find in bringing human forms, particularly faces, to the surface of the picture plane is a quest I've been on since I was a young child.
ARTIST STATEMENT
The pleasure I find in bringing human forms, particularly faces, to the surface of the picture plane is a quest I've been on since I was a young child. At nine years old, I saw the Sistine Ceiling color plates and was instantly enamored with Michelangelo. I became obsessed with drawing figures and began by copying drawings of clothing models from the newspaper…D.H. Holmes, Gus Mayer, and Maison Blanche ads. Then, in art school, we had live models, and I worked from life. I enjoyed this immensely but soon found I wanted to capture and pursue the nuances not available in a live pose. Also, I wanted to bring things closer and experiment with lighting. I began using the projector to get the proportions on the surface quickly and creating life-sized cut-out paintings of figures on masonite standing free. I had to work independently since no one in the Art Department was interested in what I was pursuing, and in fact, discouraged me. However, I knew I was part of an art movement when Artforum featured the photorealists on the cover in 1971, with a long article about the method and the movement. This furthered my resolve to use photography as a reference in painting against the backdrop of disapproval from my professors. I decided to go to grad school and learn more about this technique. Studying with Robert Bechtle, the photorealist master in San Francisco, I learned more about interpreting photography as a reference for painting: the delicate nuances, sensitivity to painting of the edges of shapes, and how to paint light or halations, dealing with the subject in a sensitive way. I began to combine influences: Pop Art Movement, Photorealism, Chuck Close, Cindy Sherman with Renaissance and Baroque painting, and Degas, who used photography so very well.
I am still fascinated by and use this approach.