5 and 6 of Top Ten

“Spacetime” 1994
wood block relief print
8 9/16 x 11 5/8”
Edition of 25

I remember reading Leonard Shlain’s “Art and Physics – Parallel Visions In Space, Time and Light” at the time that the sketch for “Spacetime” came about. I would read while doing guard duty at the CAC or while sitting nights at the Cove Café where a beautiful curly haired brunette pulled the late shift. I’d listen to the eclectic music selection while drinking coffee, beer or cocktails with the other patrons and secretly wished we were all time tripping back to Paris in the 20s. The initial sketch is scratched out on the back of a blank check lifted from the shop’s pad.

The initial idea was to present an image that would combine the ideas of particles and waves in the stream of time. This was when I was working on my underwater figures series and I think the element worked nicely with the “flow of time”. The male figure’s stance is an “as above, so below” pose. The ripples he creates on the water’s surface influence/echo the circle he’s drawing on the undulating sand.

I like the element of water as a compositional device because it can imply something working beyond the picture plane. Just as in the print “Lotus” there are various levels or worlds working simultaneously. The water current has shaped the sandy landscape, the tides along with the wind above have influenced the current and the sun far above it all casts it’s influence. The man tries to make sense of it…all in good time.




“Repression” 1994
wood block relief print
8 3/8 x 11 3/4”
Edition of 25

“Repression” presents the anima manifesting herself to the surprise of the unsuspecting repressor. What exactly the male figure is holding under water is the little mystery I like to pose wherever I can in my work.

I had been reading many of Carl Gustav Jung’s collected works, Camille Paglia’s “Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson” and various studies on goddess culture. The combination of similar ideas led to this image.

I am particularly proud of the way the cross contour lines create a chevron, an attribute of the Goddess, on the female figure’s torso and the way the background flattens into a screen of sorts.

“Repression” evolved and was later re-worked into the painting “Call”. In the painting the figure emerging from the background is motioning in what Joseph Campbell called the “fear not/boon bestowing” gesture.