People ask why I paint
on shooting targets, thus here is a brief summary of how it got started.
They have come a long way from their point of origin which began in
the international Finance Building in Washington D.C. I was working
there as a decorative painter among 500 other workers. Most of them
were male. Graffiti graced the evolvng structure and I was surprised
it was primarily of penis'.Hmmm, sort of a marking of their turf I
wondered? Flaunting of their feathers? One day, however, riding in
the freight elevator with about a half a dozen guys a photocopied
image I came face to face with disturbed me. It was a nude woman on
all fours with her buttocks positioned against a bulls-eye symbol.
In response to this,
I made my own bulls-eye collages with scantilyclad men and ppaper
shooting targets and posted them around the site. It was appropriating
their own language to try to convey how it felt to be confronted with
a symbol of yourself in such a vulnerable position. Some men I saw
looking at my collages seemed perplexed and embarassed, one was "grossed
out."
Since then, my work
on paper targets, has becomemuch more personal. Some socio-political
issues are explored but many are purely private. I am not targetingsomething
but turning these targets into shields, protective metaphors. The
works on Cabin Safety Instruction Princilples sprung from the catastophe
of 9,11, Themes of safety, personal and societal are investigated.
The idea of summoningprotective powers and questioning the balance
of power with self, others and the world is the main thrust off this
work.
The Vermont landscapes
are a different genre. All done in oil paints and usually started
on site and finished in the studi from photographs and sketches.