MY CREATIVE STRUGGLE has always tread the thin, worrisome line between what I can clearly see exists verifiably in "reality" and what must be a construct of my imagination. To express this dichotomy, I wanted to create paintings that could be both “representational” (real) and “abstract” (imagined) at the same time. And what better way to do that than to try to capture what I see the moment I walk out my door, in Soho. Each of these studies captures a portion of wall upon which posters have been put up and torn down, again and again, one on top of another, over years. The result are accidental compositions —“auto-collages”—formed by torn paper, stubs clinging to rusting staples, crumbling bricks, and the serpentine tendrils of spent glue. I’ve named each piece by the street corner near which it was seen and photographed, so to anchor them —and myself—with the idea that, yes, some of the things I see can be both utterly pedestrian and thoroughly extraordinary at the same time. Either way, like these wall fragments, they really do exist.
