"Where does it come from?", I asked myself one day in early 1992. I had doodled an elaborate pencil drawing on my notepad almost unknowingly, while on a long telephone call at work. Shortly thereafter, I discovered the writings of Andre Breton and his similar fascination with the subconscious, and my ongoing experiment in "automatic" painting was born.
Music and color for me are inseparable. When I hear music, I see color, and the type of music I am listening to at the time (usually jazz, but very often rock 'n' roll and classical), sets the tone of the paintings. Like the telephone call at my office that day, I use music to get myself into a trance-like state and start painting. I paint quickly without revision and without questioning what I am doing and what colors I am choosing. I often try to finish a painting in one session, but if I can't, I use the same music the following session, to continue the same flow of energy. The use of primary colors and strong shapes for me seems inborn, and occurs mainly in a happier state, which I sometimes refer to as "major key" paintings. The more melancholic paintings have a broken color palette and less defined shapes, and I refer to them as "minor key" paintings. However, lately, my paintings have been tending towards a mix of the two - strong shapes with a broken, darker palette. Like the albums I listen to while I paint, my "album" of work is comprised of many types of paintings, running the gamut of emotions from a lifetime of experiences.
The titles for the paintings are often generated as "automatically" as the paintings. They are based on generally the first thing I see or feel in the painting. Sometimes, the titles are from lyrics or names of musical pieces I was listening to at the time I was painting.
The shapes come from my early childhood (and ongoing) fascination with machines, especially cars, trains, planes, ships, factories, and power plants, as well as musical instruments; pieces of which often find their way into my paintings. My fascination with weather also has influenced many paintings.
Painting "automatically" from my subconscious has and will continue to allow me to draw from an almost limitless subject matter: one that is rich in personal experiences and history and is forever tied with my love of music.
