lucien 38x36" collage & acrylic on canvas
1:16 PM: so i've abandoned the idea of a minoan series, or any series! if you are reading this, then you know that my process is unusual. but not that unusual! i could pontificate and elaborate ad nauseum, so i'll cut to the chase: this IS the artistic process. and, over the past year or two, it has increasingly been MY process. and yes, the gouache & oil interiors i was doing recently are part of that picture. but after a month of that, i found myself craving my helter skelter, grab&glue reality, which has been emerging and developing roughly since 2012.
DETAIL
that summer, i underwent proton beam therapy in houston for prostate cancer. our dear friends chris & anne invited us to stay at their guest house during those 2 months, which made all the difference in our experience during that time. we became part of the family, often eating together with the kids or simply hanging out. i became close with chris's dad louis. when he learned of my love for watches, he began, after our return to colorado, sending me large envelopes containing articles about watches and art. after reading them, many found their way into the collages i was making.
those collages began in that little above-garage apartment in houston. I got some supplies and began fooling around at the small desk in the front room, overlooking the main house. my playful child emerged as i worked every day on those collages, which combined painted shapes and marks with pieces of newspaper and other scraps i found laying about.
jump forward 5 years and here we are. so why lucien? this morning i was perusing my beautifully produced freud catalogue, from the 2012 exhibition: lucien freud portraits. my admiration and love for him and his work was rekindled. i was fortunate to have met him briefly in london in the '70's, and the intensity of his gaze is imprinted in my mind. and so, in keeping with my desire to be as much as possible in present time and have my work reflect what's going on in the moment, i re-titled the painting lucien.