Presented by Gallery on the Green

The piece documented here, “American Splendor,” is a relief carving / construction based on the form of a guitar. This kind of image has appeared in my work many times in the past. Music has always been a big inspiration and I’ve been interested in how some artists, like Kandinsky and Klee, have approached the idea of the synchronicity of music and art. The guitar has been a special image for me ever since my youth in NYC worshiping Picasso’s sheet metal guitar sculpture at MOMA. Also recurrent in my work is automatic drawing which involves the chance impulse. Many parts of the piece were the result of trying to surprise myself. The exact form of any element depends more on spontaneity than anything else. The title refers to Harvey Pekar who passed away a couple of months ago. What I find compelling about him is that he was an extraordinary person disguised as a regular guy. My work in relief carving, painting and printmaking is an attempt to immerse myself in a primitive spirit, as much as an academically trained person can. My connection to the art of children, my reverence for outsider art and my love of the art of indigenous cultures encourages me to continue a search for a narrative statement. I believe that every person carries an archetypical understanding of art on some level and it’s my hope to make objects and images that can link up with people in a universal way.