Description
Acrylic and collage on Masonite – One of the most baffling aspects of American life for most of the rest of the world – aside from American tolerance of violence, prudishness about sex, and racism, is the fetishizing of The Automobile. One afternoon, in a vacant lot across the street from my studio in San Francisco, this American icon blazed like the death of a dream. The painting was an attempt to create out of the destruction an image of transcendence.
After many years of painting landscapes and city scenes, curiosity drew me towards the vivid images of my dreams. I was aware of the works of Joan Miró, Max Ernst, Dalí and Paul Delveaux, but only gradually realized that the images that arose in my own sleep were just as worthy of being painted as the scenes I observed during my waking hours. They are formidable challenges to paint, and if I were confined to painting either the waking or sleeping aspects of life, I would paint dreams.
