NYC

In the painting NYC, I combine ancient characters (Centaurs, Snake of Eden) abstract forms, and modern day characters (Lady of Liberty), and combine them to present a story of our modern day as if viewed from the distant future. I create the city of NY as a living, warm, breathing creature aware of its own existence.

The Lady of Liberty is deep in thought and rests quietly on a building, smelling a flower. Probably reflecting on her city, the changes it has gone through and contemplating with gentle indifference its future.

The centaurs are taxicabs, taking the citizens of this city to different locations as red blood cells take oxygen to different destinations throughout the body. One of the centaurs is playing the violin. Some of the taxi driver in NY have very interesting stories and talents. One taxi driver we talked to was a wood carver from Romania that worked in Vlad the Impaler's (person the original vampire legend is based on) castle.

In the outdoor restaurant scene, I show both the servant and the aristocrat with abstract faces, for that is the way each typically views the other. Each person in the servant work class seeing just another aristocrat, and each aristocrat seeing just another servant, both groups drawing from and displaying the same attitude towards the other.

I also show a homeless person green, sick and lying near floating wine. Some of the homeless you see in big cities can really touch an emotional chord within you if you look without apathy. I also have a guy looking up the stairs with a green arrow pointing. The green arrow is influenced by an exhibition of Francis Bacon I saw in Ft. Worth. There is also a guy who is part elephant walking the streets, much like the herds of people you see roaming the concrete maze of NYC.

One of the central figures shows a man with an apple, the sidewalk is grabbing his ankle and a snake is heading towards him, like a spider going after a bug trapped in her web. NY tempts some people into biting the apple of knowledge, changing ones view on the world and kicking them out of their respective paradise of blissful ignorance.