Bi-Polar portraits was how I named the portraits in the mid-1980's when they began.
All portraits on paper same paper BFK Rives 41 X 29.5 " acrylics graphite (some with collage)
Interested in Manet to begin with his portraits of Victorine Meurent
influenced by Peter Saul and reading way too much philosophy.
models in portraits herein - Kathy Halbreich by magical channeling through model S.B. 1992-3 -
also includes close up of green eyes. blondes - 3. Portrait of Mary Czerwinski 2015, Portrait of Kate W. 2015
The Mary Cz. portrait does seem like Mary in Christology. Kate W. like Heidi (for Mike Kelley)
Often the portraits don't look like the sitters. This is useful enticement for some.
A couple people asked me if I was having any shows coming up and the truth is I'm just painting.
totally speculative art, as in this could be it. And even if it isn't it it's at least something like history?
The paths not taken and with good reason. I still think about the kabbalah and my sefiroth paintings.
It's like a huge altar piece for some kind of Aleister Crowley vision of pleasure as all - LOVE IS THE LAW
So the portraits are my attempt to make some art that is normal or at least more normal than my tableaux
crucifixes etc. Like the portraits are Lithium for my art to mellow it out so it doesn't scare the horses.
The portraits sell though at a petty pace or discounts close to getting it for nothing. Not unlike poetry this
is just a peculiar project of long duration like other projects I've worked on or in. I think it should be understood
that sanity is the much desired state of affairs for anyone who has lost their mind. So when I call them bi-polar
portraits I do mean this on a literal level, that even with my brain disorder I can make beautiful portraits which
are collected by museums and private individuals even though my other works are very unusual and often meet
with less than generous appreciations..
From my viewpoint the portraits are just a version of the over all design paintings of small cartoon faces on
a room size scale in installations. Some of these installs are very memorable the color the clamor and people
pointing at someone on the giant wall that they know or is them. It's a spectacle long in the making like a wide
screen movie from the 1950's with a cast of thousands!
More to follow -