It is at the nexus of becoming aware of another thought feeling or physical event that the totally identified you may become aware that you have
been wrapped up in, enveloped by the current mental events that you were going through presently, sometime not even remembering what
mental event led you to the one you have been indentified with it. In that situation sometimes you move on to that new event that has grabbed
your attention because in the present it is more powerful than the one you have been identified with for 10,20, 30 minutes or an hour–whatever.
But sometimes, you sort of file the passing through thought thinking you will get to it later, and hoping you remember it –and you usually don’t.
But in that nexus you identification with you present events come to your awareness as an identification, so for a period of time– which is
usually not very long– you are your observer, and what you were thinking of either has extinguished or is fading away. Everybody has
experienced this over and over again. Sometimes it is quite surprising! What grabs your attention has to do with previous experience, your
values, ideas of beauty or ugliness etc, familiarity or foreignness–something too foreign may be temporarily denied, or chains of associatively
linked events–all of which inhabit that holographic field called “consciousness” Consciousness never can be closed. It is always changing, and
always being organized into gestalts in an attempt to give them meaning or understand their presence.
So I asked myself– being a painter, and ex-psychologist, and philosopher of mind– could consciousness or the subjective field be the subject of
a painting. How did I connect painting with mind other than it is a subjective expression in all cases?
I had already come to a definition of “Good Art”. The definition came as a result of my trying to define art for myself. I formulated definition after
definition of art and and recorded all the definitions I could find of art by artists,philosophers, and Art Historians and I could find none, literally
none that would hold up under logical analysis. However, good art seems easy for me to define.. It is art that you can’t close. No matter how
long you look at it or whenever you come back in its presence, it pulls your attention and never bores you. It is alive until it disintegrates.
From that I came up with the idea or question whether I could paint my own subjectivity as my subject. If I could I would be painting an analogue
of consciousness itself. All this thinking about art, doing it, tripping doing, introspecting on consciousness and my psychedelic trips were
happening simultaneously, and interpenetrated and co-produced each other.
One thing I noticed about paintings–Good Art that couldn’t be closed was that they slightly busted out of the front plane of the painting as if
they were in an atmosphere rather than on canvas or paper…Also they were difficult to hold a gestalt with they kept on visibly (sometimes very
subtly) changing. I soon learned there were many ways of producing that from very minimal artist like Rothko, somewhat Baroque one like
Bernard (me). I chose to bombard the viewer’s mind with so many elements on a canvas the it is very difficult for them to tightly gestalt it -if not
impossible. And I found in a way I was succeeding in creating analogues of Consciousness or at least it process. So in my painting my subject
was and still is very much subjectivity itself…I called it Subjective Realism but I found out at that time others were using the term to mean many
different ways of doing art…so I let go of the term
I left Soho in 73 or 74 after having a great time on the New York Art Scene and living in Soho I moved to Taos. However, before I moved I did
the first of the painting that fells in line with my new visions about painting and consciousness. In Taos I soon stopped thinking theoretically and
just painted…and the paintings were coming out better then I envisioned. Taos seemed to me then and in Retrospection to amplify everything.
Taos is also the place I became buddies with Dennis Hopper, and friends with John Nichols writer of the Milagro Beanfield War
. In Taos I lived a life way more intense in terms of the art scene itself, painting, and life in general, than I did in New York. Imagine this, I
entered an Art Contest run by The Taos Artist Association at the request of Tom Andriola the director at the time. The Contest was to be
judged by Robert De niro Senior who was teaching at the Tallyrand Institute of Art in Arizona. All the artist in the Association submitted their
work and so did a few like me (a new comers) who weren’t members yet . Alas, Mr. Dinero senior who himself was a great artist awarded me first
prize–Andriola told me that later, as did a couple of members of the Association. But the old timers on the board of the association and their
allies, threatened to quit en masse, or fire Tom if I was awarded the Prize. De niro wouldn’t agree to change his judgment although they wanted
him to award first prize to a member of the association. They said I should be given third prize and then said they would agree to second prize.
De niro still wouldn’t cave in and said he thought I was a great painter. Than Tom who later became my very good friend, came up with a save
the day solution which was they would form a division of prizes for the best artists in the show and the best young artist–both to be given the
same Prize. Tom begged Di niro to accede to that since if not his job was on the line. De niro, after much coaxing, finally agreed to that solution
if I also was given second prize in theprimary contest but not until he told the associations board he never wanted anything to do with them
again. The story doesn’t end their but I will save it for another time.
While in Taos, I showed at the Maggie Kress gallery. Maggie was a great help to me, and was very supportative, and I had a successful one
man show there that helped get me a show at the Elaine Horwitch Gallery in Sante Fe, New Mexico that is an important international gallery.. It
was a three person show and I was totally thrilled because I was showing with Georgia O’Keefe, and Paul Jenkins–two painters I loved and
admired and I must say my paintings looked better than ever next to their work. It was then I learned that to show next to weak work it weakens
your work and to show next to great work it strengthens your work.
Anyway the Local major paper reviewed the show and much to my surprise and to everyone else’s the reviewer said the show was great but a
young painter (me) stoled the Show from the two giant painters.Elaine got no flack from either O’keefe or Jenkins, and was excited about
discovering me. It is still hard for me to believe that someone can be so greedy and afraid, but her major money making painter with the Texas
oil money set, who was a native American who did sort of Abstract Western painting fearing that I might be competition for him said if she
handled me he would pull out of the gallery and the timing was terrific because he had a major show coming up and all stops were being pulled
out at publicizing it. So I was told in a few years they would work me back into the gallery and they would get me another gallery in Sante Fe to
show in..
In 78 I moved to Boulder Colorado, and lived in the house of my Corporate Art Agent Michael Fagan and his wife Joanne at the time. I lived
there a year and showed once in the the Sebastian -Moore Gallery, and fell in love with Mimi Moore one of the owners, but she had a man.
However, we shared some wonderful times together as friends. In the meanwhile Michael sold a few of my works to Midland Bank, and I was told
later the Lobby of a new building in construction was designed around my paintings. I don’t know if that is true or not and I never got to see it.
Then I moved to Woodstock and there I had one man shows at the Night Gallery owned by a great guy whose name I think was Steve Horowitz.
While there I became friends with Rick Danko of the Band, Tim Moore and Happy Tram and I shared a long long road and driveway with Happy
Tram who was merely an acquaintance of mine…I always did want to get to know him but it just never happened
In Woodstock, I met a Dutch woman who was to become my 2nd wife and she lassoed me and took me to Holland in 1984. Since, then and even
after we divorced I have been in Holland and I have showed in Den Haag, Amsterdam, Noordwijk A/Zee and Alkmaar.
However, in 2001 I took a 7 year hiatus to write a thousand page novel titled “I Do Art, I Do Life, Life Does Me © (all rights reserved) which I am
trying to get published. During the time I wrote the novel I found I could do computer art but not paint. I just got back to painting two years ago
and for the first time since I was a professional artist I am doing relatively small paintings. The problem I have set for myself is to see if I can
make my small paintings be as powerful as my large ones and I think I am coming along in that direction.
been wrapped up in, enveloped by the current mental events that you were going through presently, sometime not even remembering what
mental event led you to the one you have been indentified with it. In that situation sometimes you move on to that new event that has grabbed
your attention because in the present it is more powerful than the one you have been identified with for 10,20, 30 minutes or an hour–whatever.
But sometimes, you sort of file the passing through thought thinking you will get to it later, and hoping you remember it –and you usually don’t.
But in that nexus you identification with you present events come to your awareness as an identification, so for a period of time– which is
usually not very long– you are your observer, and what you were thinking of either has extinguished or is fading away. Everybody has
experienced this over and over again. Sometimes it is quite surprising! What grabs your attention has to do with previous experience, your
values, ideas of beauty or ugliness etc, familiarity or foreignness–something too foreign may be temporarily denied, or chains of associatively
linked events–all of which inhabit that holographic field called “consciousness” Consciousness never can be closed. It is always changing, and
always being organized into gestalts in an attempt to give them meaning or understand their presence.
So I asked myself– being a painter, and ex-psychologist, and philosopher of mind– could consciousness or the subjective field be the subject of
a painting. How did I connect painting with mind other than it is a subjective expression in all cases?
I had already come to a definition of “Good Art”. The definition came as a result of my trying to define art for myself. I formulated definition after
definition of art and and recorded all the definitions I could find of art by artists,philosophers, and Art Historians and I could find none, literally
none that would hold up under logical analysis. However, good art seems easy for me to define.. It is art that you can’t close. No matter how
long you look at it or whenever you come back in its presence, it pulls your attention and never bores you. It is alive until it disintegrates.
From that I came up with the idea or question whether I could paint my own subjectivity as my subject. If I could I would be painting an analogue
of consciousness itself. All this thinking about art, doing it, tripping doing, introspecting on consciousness and my psychedelic trips were
happening simultaneously, and interpenetrated and co-produced each other.
One thing I noticed about paintings–Good Art that couldn’t be closed was that they slightly busted out of the front plane of the painting as if
they were in an atmosphere rather than on canvas or paper…Also they were difficult to hold a gestalt with they kept on visibly (sometimes very
subtly) changing. I soon learned there were many ways of producing that from very minimal artist like Rothko, somewhat Baroque one like
Bernard (me). I chose to bombard the viewer’s mind with so many elements on a canvas the it is very difficult for them to tightly gestalt it -if not
impossible. And I found in a way I was succeeding in creating analogues of Consciousness or at least it process. So in my painting my subject
was and still is very much subjectivity itself…I called it Subjective Realism but I found out at that time others were using the term to mean many
different ways of doing art…so I let go of the term
I left Soho in 73 or 74 after having a great time on the New York Art Scene and living in Soho I moved to Taos. However, before I moved I did
the first of the painting that fells in line with my new visions about painting and consciousness. In Taos I soon stopped thinking theoretically and
just painted…and the paintings were coming out better then I envisioned. Taos seemed to me then and in Retrospection to amplify everything.
Taos is also the place I became buddies with Dennis Hopper, and friends with John Nichols writer of the Milagro Beanfield War
. In Taos I lived a life way more intense in terms of the art scene itself, painting, and life in general, than I did in New York. Imagine this, I
entered an Art Contest run by The Taos Artist Association at the request of Tom Andriola the director at the time. The Contest was to be
judged by Robert De niro Senior who was teaching at the Tallyrand Institute of Art in Arizona. All the artist in the Association submitted their
work and so did a few like me (a new comers) who weren’t members yet . Alas, Mr. Dinero senior who himself was a great artist awarded me first
prize–Andriola told me that later, as did a couple of members of the Association. But the old timers on the board of the association and their
allies, threatened to quit en masse, or fire Tom if I was awarded the Prize. De niro wouldn’t agree to change his judgment although they wanted
him to award first prize to a member of the association. They said I should be given third prize and then said they would agree to second prize.
De niro still wouldn’t cave in and said he thought I was a great painter. Than Tom who later became my very good friend, came up with a save
the day solution which was they would form a division of prizes for the best artists in the show and the best young artist–both to be given the
same Prize. Tom begged Di niro to accede to that since if not his job was on the line. De niro, after much coaxing, finally agreed to that solution
if I also was given second prize in theprimary contest but not until he told the associations board he never wanted anything to do with them
again. The story doesn’t end their but I will save it for another time.
While in Taos, I showed at the Maggie Kress gallery. Maggie was a great help to me, and was very supportative, and I had a successful one
man show there that helped get me a show at the Elaine Horwitch Gallery in Sante Fe, New Mexico that is an important international gallery.. It
was a three person show and I was totally thrilled because I was showing with Georgia O’Keefe, and Paul Jenkins–two painters I loved and
admired and I must say my paintings looked better than ever next to their work. It was then I learned that to show next to weak work it weakens
your work and to show next to great work it strengthens your work.
Anyway the Local major paper reviewed the show and much to my surprise and to everyone else’s the reviewer said the show was great but a
young painter (me) stoled the Show from the two giant painters.Elaine got no flack from either O’keefe or Jenkins, and was excited about
discovering me. It is still hard for me to believe that someone can be so greedy and afraid, but her major money making painter with the Texas
oil money set, who was a native American who did sort of Abstract Western painting fearing that I might be competition for him said if she
handled me he would pull out of the gallery and the timing was terrific because he had a major show coming up and all stops were being pulled
out at publicizing it. So I was told in a few years they would work me back into the gallery and they would get me another gallery in Sante Fe to
show in..
In 78 I moved to Boulder Colorado, and lived in the house of my Corporate Art Agent Michael Fagan and his wife Joanne at the time. I lived
there a year and showed once in the the Sebastian -Moore Gallery, and fell in love with Mimi Moore one of the owners, but she had a man.
However, we shared some wonderful times together as friends. In the meanwhile Michael sold a few of my works to Midland Bank, and I was told
later the Lobby of a new building in construction was designed around my paintings. I don’t know if that is true or not and I never got to see it.
Then I moved to Woodstock and there I had one man shows at the Night Gallery owned by a great guy whose name I think was Steve Horowitz.
While there I became friends with Rick Danko of the Band, Tim Moore and Happy Tram and I shared a long long road and driveway with Happy
Tram who was merely an acquaintance of mine…I always did want to get to know him but it just never happened
In Woodstock, I met a Dutch woman who was to become my 2nd wife and she lassoed me and took me to Holland in 1984. Since, then and even
after we divorced I have been in Holland and I have showed in Den Haag, Amsterdam, Noordwijk A/Zee and Alkmaar.
However, in 2001 I took a 7 year hiatus to write a thousand page novel titled “I Do Art, I Do Life, Life Does Me © (all rights reserved) which I am
trying to get published. During the time I wrote the novel I found I could do computer art but not paint. I just got back to painting two years ago
and for the first time since I was a professional artist I am doing relatively small paintings. The problem I have set for myself is to see if I can
make my small paintings be as powerful as my large ones and I think I am coming along in that direction.
| The New York Optimist |
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| © MMIX, The New York Optimist. All Rights Reserved. The New York Optimist & www.thenewyorkoptimist.com is a registered trademark of The New York Optimist. The New York Optimist is a registered service mark of Thenewyorkoptimist.com. The New York Optimist logo and original photos are a registered trademark of The New York Optimist . All other photos are property of the advertiser. And are rightfully protected under their copyright protections. |
This is Bernard Dov Wisser I wasn’t always a 74 year old Artist once I was a baby then after a few years I went to high school and got
kicked out just because I didn’t like to attend school. Then I went into the army, took the GED high school equivalency test scored in the
98tj percentile and at a certain point went to New York University. I became a speech therapist. After that, I went for a Master’s degree in
Philosophy at the University of Florida, and then I went for a PhD in Psychology at the U of F. I also taught a sophomore course in
psychology called the Psychology of Adjustment at the same place. I only did all that academic stuff to please the gal I wanted to marry. I
had wanted to be an artist. I was 21 and she was 22. She adored me and I adored her but she took a stand and said she wouldn’t marry
me if I became an artist. Knowing I was reading a lot about psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, she said if I became a Psychologist she
would work and put me through school, and then I could put her through school. Why I became a speech therapist first is a long story, But
it was connected to becoming a psychologist. In retrospect I think I was a real shlump to go along with her deal.
I started painting with oils at 8 years old and before that I did art with crayons and water colour and tempera paint. However, after a year of
painting in oils a few days a week I started thinking about being a Painter when I grew up. Before that I wanted to be a shoeshine man. I
painted in oil until I met my wife Shirley who has left the planet many years ago and long after our divorce.
To make a long rap short, Shirley ran away with a painter who was just getting his bachelor degree in Art. To top it off he was born on my
birthday, and was 10 years younger than both of us.
Simultaneously my mentor Sidney M. Jourard, who was a great therapist, teacher and theorist, was given some LSD– pure stuff– to do
research with. He laid a couple of tabs on me to do some phenomenological research with. I refrigerated the two tabs waiting for the
perfect time to begin my research with plumes and bells and surrounded by love da, da da da da da.
After Shirley left and a couple of weeks of motor speech depression which was an almost catatonic time for me, I downed the acid with a
former beautiful female student. I bumped into the co-ed on the street and enticed her to my bachelor lair in married housing, with promise
of giving her, her first acid trip–I forgot to tell her it was mine too..
Miraculously considering the conditions, she and I spent 22 hours in paradise. Now I am sure that dropping that acid was either a
unconscious suicidal gesture or a guided intuition on how to heal myself. Well that trip changed my life and put it on track. I became even
more fascinated with mind and creativity than I was before.
kicked out just because I didn’t like to attend school. Then I went into the army, took the GED high school equivalency test scored in the
98tj percentile and at a certain point went to New York University. I became a speech therapist. After that, I went for a Master’s degree in
Philosophy at the University of Florida, and then I went for a PhD in Psychology at the U of F. I also taught a sophomore course in
psychology called the Psychology of Adjustment at the same place. I only did all that academic stuff to please the gal I wanted to marry. I
had wanted to be an artist. I was 21 and she was 22. She adored me and I adored her but she took a stand and said she wouldn’t marry
me if I became an artist. Knowing I was reading a lot about psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, she said if I became a Psychologist she
would work and put me through school, and then I could put her through school. Why I became a speech therapist first is a long story, But
it was connected to becoming a psychologist. In retrospect I think I was a real shlump to go along with her deal.
I started painting with oils at 8 years old and before that I did art with crayons and water colour and tempera paint. However, after a year of
painting in oils a few days a week I started thinking about being a Painter when I grew up. Before that I wanted to be a shoeshine man. I
painted in oil until I met my wife Shirley who has left the planet many years ago and long after our divorce.
To make a long rap short, Shirley ran away with a painter who was just getting his bachelor degree in Art. To top it off he was born on my
birthday, and was 10 years younger than both of us.
Simultaneously my mentor Sidney M. Jourard, who was a great therapist, teacher and theorist, was given some LSD– pure stuff– to do
research with. He laid a couple of tabs on me to do some phenomenological research with. I refrigerated the two tabs waiting for the
perfect time to begin my research with plumes and bells and surrounded by love da, da da da da da.
After Shirley left and a couple of weeks of motor speech depression which was an almost catatonic time for me, I downed the acid with a
former beautiful female student. I bumped into the co-ed on the street and enticed her to my bachelor lair in married housing, with promise
of giving her, her first acid trip–I forgot to tell her it was mine too..
Miraculously considering the conditions, she and I spent 22 hours in paradise. Now I am sure that dropping that acid was either a
unconscious suicidal gesture or a guided intuition on how to heal myself. Well that trip changed my life and put it on track. I became even
more fascinated with mind and creativity than I was before.
| An Amusing Tale Of Abstract Painter Bernard Dov Wisser Presented By Kaliopy |
You see my wife running away with someone was my first GRAND rug pull and I hit the floor with Jewish nose before me. Yet in those 22
hours my mind created a paradise I wasn’t even able to imagine in my normal state. Strange when you realize..just a few hours before I
dropped the acid, I was in a painfully miserable state…so the question raised up from the depths of my mind; if MY mind created such
phenomenological realities, what could it create in the material world that I hadn’t imagined or started too.
So you can say, .I too, like so many others in that period, Turned On, Tripped Out, and Dropped ou–t of being a psychotherapist–-and
became a healthy psycho on his way to the Big Apple, New York City..
The first living space I could call my own in, in NYC…was a store front. It had been divided into two small rooms. The inner one contained
the shower, toilet and kitchen, and the outer room was my bedroom. My bed served as a couch socially I couldn’t paint in that space so I
made about a thousand approximately 1inch by 1 inch pieces…in colored pencils. They really weren’t one by one, because after they
became shapes, I cut them out of the paper and they all had different shape. I could do a lot of them in a sitting thats why I had thousands
which I kept in a desk top carboard cabinet with five drawers…I don’t remember what happened to them they were really nice I ended up
calling them my Jewels.
hours my mind created a paradise I wasn’t even able to imagine in my normal state. Strange when you realize..just a few hours before I
dropped the acid, I was in a painfully miserable state…so the question raised up from the depths of my mind; if MY mind created such
phenomenological realities, what could it create in the material world that I hadn’t imagined or started too.
So you can say, .I too, like so many others in that period, Turned On, Tripped Out, and Dropped ou–t of being a psychotherapist–-and
became a healthy psycho on his way to the Big Apple, New York City..
The first living space I could call my own in, in NYC…was a store front. It had been divided into two small rooms. The inner one contained
the shower, toilet and kitchen, and the outer room was my bedroom. My bed served as a couch socially I couldn’t paint in that space so I
made about a thousand approximately 1inch by 1 inch pieces…in colored pencils. They really weren’t one by one, because after they
became shapes, I cut them out of the paper and they all had different shape. I could do a lot of them in a sitting thats why I had thousands
which I kept in a desk top carboard cabinet with five drawers…I don’t remember what happened to them they were really nice I ended up
calling them my Jewels.
In meanwhile I created new personae which would come to be called Bernard Super-Star. I wore stove pipe pants a leather vest, boots over
my pants a pirates blouse with balloon sleeves and a musketeer hat on top of my afro.. You see, .shortly after I got my store front I discovered
Max’s Kansas City, an eatery, drinking and dance place which was a hang out for many artists of the sixtys new wave movement, actors, many
from Hair and Jesus Christ Super Star, The Living Theatre people, new wave movie stars George Seigel and Ben Pollack, Rock Musicians,
Janis Joplin and jim Morrison showed up there at different times…and on and on. Well, Max’s had a back room that was informally reserved
for the crew from Andy Warhol’s Factory…All the super stars and every one working for Andy hung out there in the evening, plus
Rauschenberg would some times come there most of time with Marion Javits the wife of Senator Javits. Jasper Johns sometimes showed up
as did John Chamberlin the lumbering crushed cars sculptor.
I soon became a back room denizen after meeting a nd dating (making love to) Ingrid Super-Star one of Andy’s super stars from his movies.
She is the one who named me Bernard Super-star and dragged me into the back room with her. Soon I was going in the back room on my
own without Ingrie. I Made friends with Viva and Eric, Gerard was civil to me but for some reason which I never figured he wasn’t all that
friendly.
my pants a pirates blouse with balloon sleeves and a musketeer hat on top of my afro.. You see, .shortly after I got my store front I discovered
Max’s Kansas City, an eatery, drinking and dance place which was a hang out for many artists of the sixtys new wave movement, actors, many
from Hair and Jesus Christ Super Star, The Living Theatre people, new wave movie stars George Seigel and Ben Pollack, Rock Musicians,
Janis Joplin and jim Morrison showed up there at different times…and on and on. Well, Max’s had a back room that was informally reserved
for the crew from Andy Warhol’s Factory…All the super stars and every one working for Andy hung out there in the evening, plus
Rauschenberg would some times come there most of time with Marion Javits the wife of Senator Javits. Jasper Johns sometimes showed up
as did John Chamberlin the lumbering crushed cars sculptor.
I soon became a back room denizen after meeting a nd dating (making love to) Ingrid Super-Star one of Andy’s super stars from his movies.
She is the one who named me Bernard Super-star and dragged me into the back room with her. Soon I was going in the back room on my
own without Ingrie. I Made friends with Viva and Eric, Gerard was civil to me but for some reason which I never figured he wasn’t all that
friendly.
Well anyway that is when I really started to be a part of the New York Art Scene. It was
in the back room I met two of my best friends at the time a couple Emmy Lou and
Tommy. They were both musicians and Tommy was Emmy’s “manager” and Emmy Lou
played Guitar, wrote songs and Sang. She was just getting to be booked to clubs on
the folk scene in grenwich Village and they were both struggling financially. So a lot of
times I paid for the drinks. Well you guessed it already Emmy Lou was Emmy Lou
Harris. Although we don’t get in touch with each other anymore I do get to see her
rarely and she is just as friendly to me as she was then. In fact, it was Emmy Lou who
first took me to Woodstock, where I would end up living for five years later on.
I mentioned the whole Max’s trip because many of the well known painters and artist
like Frosty Meyers the laser artist would ask me what I do, and not wanting to say I was
a psychologist, I would say I was an artist. When asked what I do
I would say, “Jewels!”
in the back room I met two of my best friends at the time a couple Emmy Lou and
Tommy. They were both musicians and Tommy was Emmy’s “manager” and Emmy Lou
played Guitar, wrote songs and Sang. She was just getting to be booked to clubs on
the folk scene in grenwich Village and they were both struggling financially. So a lot of
times I paid for the drinks. Well you guessed it already Emmy Lou was Emmy Lou
Harris. Although we don’t get in touch with each other anymore I do get to see her
rarely and she is just as friendly to me as she was then. In fact, it was Emmy Lou who
first took me to Woodstock, where I would end up living for five years later on.
I mentioned the whole Max’s trip because many of the well known painters and artist
like Frosty Meyers the laser artist would ask me what I do, and not wanting to say I was
a psychologist, I would say I was an artist. When asked what I do
I would say, “Jewels!”
A couple of years later I bought a compressor and a spray gun
from some artist who was cutting out of New York. By that time I
got myself a loft in a real dangerous ghetto at the time whch was
on Avenue D and 6th street. It was 2000 square ft. and I paid a
ridiculous rent for it and thought my Landlord was being
benevolent. I had 7 burglaries there, and had to partially
refurnish my appliances since they would clean me out on that
score. But the cheap rent enabled me to do big spray pieces
which were biomorphic yet non-objective. They were a little like
big Georgia O’Keef’s although I hadn’t seen her work at that time.
That is when I got my first group show in the Hansen Gallery on–I
think it was– on Wooster Street.
It was the spray paintings that were my first big body of work. And
in weird way the pushed me toward the type of work I was soon to
do and which I still do with a departure now and then. I
discovered if I didn’t gesso the canvas on a spray painting it
would catch the knap of the canvas and the effect was that of a
powdery pastel. I was spraying in a spray boot I made with a
pebbly brick wall and the rough surface would have that effect
too. I found that out while testing the colors I was going to use on
that wall which after a time had layers and layer of colors on it .
But that was one of the first situations where I got the idea of
painting layer over layer over layer although there were others.
Both the spray paintings and the wall seem to come off the front
plane of the painting.
from some artist who was cutting out of New York. By that time I
got myself a loft in a real dangerous ghetto at the time whch was
on Avenue D and 6th street. It was 2000 square ft. and I paid a
ridiculous rent for it and thought my Landlord was being
benevolent. I had 7 burglaries there, and had to partially
refurnish my appliances since they would clean me out on that
score. But the cheap rent enabled me to do big spray pieces
which were biomorphic yet non-objective. They were a little like
big Georgia O’Keef’s although I hadn’t seen her work at that time.
That is when I got my first group show in the Hansen Gallery on–I
think it was– on Wooster Street.
It was the spray paintings that were my first big body of work. And
in weird way the pushed me toward the type of work I was soon to
do and which I still do with a departure now and then. I
discovered if I didn’t gesso the canvas on a spray painting it
would catch the knap of the canvas and the effect was that of a
powdery pastel. I was spraying in a spray boot I made with a
pebbly brick wall and the rough surface would have that effect
too. I found that out while testing the colors I was going to use on
that wall which after a time had layers and layer of colors on it .
But that was one of the first situations where I got the idea of
painting layer over layer over layer although there were others.
Both the spray paintings and the wall seem to come off the front
plane of the painting.
Around that time I was taking a lot of psychedelic trips. I stopped
taking them (except rarely) after about 400 to 500 trips. Tripping for
me was as much about navigating consciousness and exploring the
possibilities and potentials of mind as it was about the sexual
adventures and theatrical social interactions–which I loved–that
they brought me into.
I repeatedly saw that consciousness is like a holograph with no
experiential border. In consciousness some thought of feeling that
was way back in your mind suddenly becomes so forward that you
may find yourself so totally identified with the thought .that in fact for
a period of time mentally you are those thoughts are those thoughts
you are identified with..
And while in that process other thoughts feelings and physical
events pass through your phenomenal or perceptual field. Some
have more power than others to attract you and have you identify
with them in your present situation and others are so weak that
though they may be present perceptually they are invisible and can
only gain power and visibility if you shift your organized gestalt by
identifying with another element in your field.
taking them (except rarely) after about 400 to 500 trips. Tripping for
me was as much about navigating consciousness and exploring the
possibilities and potentials of mind as it was about the sexual
adventures and theatrical social interactions–which I loved–that
they brought me into.
I repeatedly saw that consciousness is like a holograph with no
experiential border. In consciousness some thought of feeling that
was way back in your mind suddenly becomes so forward that you
may find yourself so totally identified with the thought .that in fact for
a period of time mentally you are those thoughts are those thoughts
you are identified with..
And while in that process other thoughts feelings and physical
events pass through your phenomenal or perceptual field. Some
have more power than others to attract you and have you identify
with them in your present situation and others are so weak that
though they may be present perceptually they are invisible and can
only gain power and visibility if you shift your organized gestalt by
identifying with another element in your field.
SHARE