Time, Faces
This idea has been swimming around in my head for quite a while, but when I started to amass images it became a bit overwhelming. Should I just include the oil paintings or go the deep dive into drawings also? So I threw out faces on my desktop and decided to let them dictate their preferences, and let time riff among them.
The first one is right above….of me in my old studio on Church Street surrounded by the idea fish, my familiar (catspider) and various objects that hung around. The lace curtain divides inside from out and you get a glimpse of the old Canal Street stores. The fish swim everywhere. (Crazyfish 2008 oil on wood 30 X 60)
And looking back through the decades we come to the first oil self portrait I did. That’s an actual Post headline:
Self Portrait
1987 18 X 24 oil on canvas
Just to give some context here is a family portrait…..that’s me holding the skull and grinning:
Family Portrait
1987 70 X 86 oil on linen
…and then I painted the inside out burning, subway musings & the overlap of movie and self before looking in the mirror again:
Wolff Walk
2003 48 X 72 oil on linen
Enough with the same face! Here’s where a lot of looking across years began:
Virgil on Sheepskin
1990 10 X 16 watercolor on paper
I said I wouldn’t do a whole post with just his pictures—he told me that would be weird…..I’ll restrain myself to a handful:
Virgil
2000 8 X 12 pen on paper
This is bad…I haven’t even gotten through my relatives. Well, so its a deep, deep rabbit hole. Part 2 will be coming along in a bit. I promise other people and locals. On the ground, in the air, lounging in bed with books and staring you in the face.