By the summer of 1972 I was moving to a more
"expressionistic figurative style". These are typically painted on wood
panels in oil and over time evolved to cut out low relief painted
sculptural constructions including "found objects". The first of these was "The Cross Eyed Man Singing" which won a major Gallery Award in 1972 in
Philadelphia. This encouraged me to work in this style for the next 10
years. My "self conscious awareness" of the window like canvas was met
head on with frequent paintings within paintings, mirrors, landscapes in
windows and occasional carved cut out figures glued on the surfaces.
When I brought this piece to Stephen Green,
He said painting the figure was a waste- I couldn't understand this since
his fame started when he painted a figurative and primitive version
of The Ox Bow Incident. I spent more
time in his classes than with any other instructor. He was more of a
mentor than a teacher. Whenever Frank Stella his most famous student
came to visit, I was invited. But things got really complicated with the self imposed sketches and
studies and re-paintings of repaintings and sculptures from
paintings with paintings etc.
