"Dangerous Intersection"
(acrylic painting on paper, 24X36, 1998)
"From 30 feet away she looked like a lot of class. From 10 feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from 30 feet away."
Raymond Chandler
"You don't have to be naked to be sexy."
Nicole Kidman
"The most dangerous moment comes with victory."
Napoleon Bonaparte
"Sex-appeal is the keynote of our whole civilization."
Henri Bergson
Painting "Dangerous Intersection" was a stepping-stone for me, because while I was working on it I realized that I don't have to use colors that I see in real life in my work. I know that it sounds simple and thousands of other artists before me have altered their color palettes to create alternative perceptions of reality, but for me it was still an unexpected discovery.
To be able to substitute colors that I see with colors that I perceive as more appropriate for the 'mood' of the painting allowed me to better integrate form and function. Like many other people I subconsciously associate certain colors with feelings, e.g. pink is girly, blue is curious, gold is daring. I don't know where these associations come from since I don't have any recollection as to how I've developed them, but they make sense to me as a person and an artist.
The best part is that someone else might associate the same colors with something completely different. For them seeing Pepto-Bismal pink in combination with 'the newborn baby-boy' blue might bring forward a memory of feeling blue, while suffering from stomach problems... And that's precisely what I believe to be the most intriguing thing about art; the viewer seeing his own life experiences in the artwork created out of life experiences of the artist.
