I love cartoons. I always have. They are my earliest memories, and I hope they will be my last someday. Cartoons are universal, but they weren’t always that way. I knew a Swiss man who saw his first cartoon at nine and concluded that animals in America can talk. I didn’t draw that conclusion until I was in my late twenties. I create art because I can and I love it. The impulse becomes a drive, “To get it off my back,” as Nina Simone said. “With great power comes great responsibility,” many of Stan Lee’s characters have added. Such responsibility is wasted without mindful action.
I read a lot, and much of what I read winds up on my canvas, usually in combination with other things I’ve read, seen, heard, and experienced. My style is influenced by the art of Thomas Hart Benton, Rick Geary, MAD Magazine, Underground Comix, psychedelic poster art, Orthodox icons, Michelangelo, fashion photography, etc. I use a “cultural color wheel” of my device, which includes International Orange, Coke Red, Hershey Brown, Conrail Blue, School-bus Yellow, John Deere Green, and other colors a viewer may feel oddly or overtly familiar with.
My early paintings began with simple quotations and readings on creativity by practitioners of every discipline, but my inspirations and their interpretations have expanded over time. I sometimes have flashes of insight while doing mundane things such as walking the dog, meditating, or milking a cow (which I have never done). In Latin, this is called “Solvitur ambulando” (“It is solved by walking”). What I want to do is Educate, Enlighten and Entertain. (my 3 E’s)
I paint on canvas and wood panels, and I use oil paint because I like the look, feel, and smell. It’s exciting to do novel things with ancient materials. If I don’t have fun, the viewer won’t, and if the viewer doesn’t, I won’t. May that circle be unbroken.
