THE VIRTUES

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My most recent work, a series of collages, sprang from my portfolios of studies of the human form.  Decades of life drawing and figurative work in various media - experiments with outline, coloratura, mass, abstraction, gesture and color - weave and collide in the final images. I find the mix of charcoal work woven through blocks of color - perhaps taken from a torso, breaking up a languid pose, or painted shapes defining space, etc. - to be intriguing.   

 

Like my other silhouettes and vignettes, a story begins to appear - perhaps a Native American headdress emerges, or two figures entwine in a dance, or mysterious forms weave in and around a meditative form, or a landscape is suggested.  

 

I move the shapes, cutting and editing them, adding and subtracting, until the theme and composition become clear.  Ultimately, with the black background popping the images forward, the pieces take on a classical feel.  Each construction seemed to take on an identity - to whisper a word to me - which became The Virtues.