The Color Prophecies

Paintings and Collages that integrate abstraction with representation.

Mexico shook Josef Albers loose from the greys and blues of the North and inspired Albers to use magenta, turquoise, violet, and ocher, among other colors, in varying combinations. These are the colors of nature and everyday culture in Mexico. Pure, “out of the can” colors like those used as house paint or in advertisements, take their natural place with the red earth and turquoise skies. Our society and popular culture has since metabolized the intuitions of Albers, and in this series I’m seeking a re-integration of that special dialog he achieved with the conscious and material reality formed by painting that joins abstraction with representation.

The Color Prophecies is a new series begun in September, 2016. In it I am exploring where color predicts and dictates certain interactions. For the creation and design of these images I am painting solid color mixtures on woodblock papers to use for backgrounds and various planar elements with isolated figural elements from my photographs. These mixed media collages function as the studies for my paintings.

I have been working with the premise of creating paintings with specific color palettes for many years. For me, it is a working process that is endlessly fascinating. I was never interested in attacking the blank canvas or putting down one mark and seeing where that led me. Of course this is a subject that has been written about with many variations. The practice of orchestrating the colors in a painting to register in a particular key is my approach.