Paintbox series

This is a series of images made in NYC in 1978-79 when I started teaching at the New York Studio School (nyss.org)
I spent the whole year working on one motif, day-in, day-out, from the same angle, same distance, same lighting conditions (as much as was possible), determined to really get into the differences an awareness of changing "internal" conditions could trigger in the “(drawing of the) appearance of the external world."
These drawings are as honest an attempt at dealing with "the appearing as it appears" as I had ever done up to that point in time.
These drawings represent a pivotal moment in my work, nothing was ever the same after this period of work. In fact, this is about the time when I began to see that, no matter what it was I was trying to do, the "same" structure would always appear, whether I wanted "it" or not. Much of my work since has been a progressive acceptance of that fact, "going with the flow"as it were.
Years of dedicated work done since showed me that that “structure” is dynamic, it is created by the fluctuation between two modes of experience, from “flux-reclaiming” to “stasis-reclaiming,” and vice versa, for as long as one can sustain it.
Years later, this gave birth to one of my very first "animations," it helped bridge the gap between my natural media days, and my current digital work.
http://vimeo.com/112742899
The video was rescued from a very small 320 x 240 web version, the higher res version was lost to one of too many drive melt-downs (donations toward buying hard drives gratefully accepted;-).