Page 194 - musetouch

I was very lucky in my middle and high school years to have attended schools that actually
had art classes- and excellent art teachers, who moonlighted as professional artists, showing
their work in big-city galleries in San Francisco and New York. By the time i was 15 or so I
could see the path ahead for me. I had no idea of what I wanted to do, media or “style” other
than master the techniques required to make fine art. I did come to an epiphany of sorts- One
day while I was thinking about the creative process and pondering the source of inspira-

tion, i.e: trying to figure out what to do next, it dawned on me that all of the artists all down
through history did not sit around in Art class wondering what to do- they just looked inside
their minds and hearts, found their vision, and got to work. I realized that all of my wild and
crazy hormone-driven musings were just as valid as subject matter for painting as classical
mythology, dogs and horses, or bowls of fruit. I realized that all those theories about what art
was supposed to be were just the thoughts of individual artists going about their business,
or the ravings of wanna- be artists, critics and writers who rarely touched a paintbrush. So I
immediately set to work making some drawings depicting all kinds of psychedelic monsters

having sex orgies. These got my art teacher laughing and horrified yet fascinated all the girls
in class- And one of the drawings sold immediately to a friend of my parents’- making me a
professional artist! So I knew I had struck gold somewhere in the cesspool of my mind, that
my ideas were as good as anyone else’s, and that I was, indeed, an artist. Why am I an artist? i
have no idea, other that for me it seemed like the thing to do- I am just thankful I was given
the vision.
I had a dream once, when I was 12 years old or so- I dreamed that I was in a room filled floor
to ceiling with many beautiful pictures- each one a colorful painting with marvelous imagery
depicting all sorts of amazing things. I realized somehow while enjoying the gallery of my
dream that I was in fact dreaming…I could sense that these wonderful paintings were on
exhibit in the gallery of my mind- viewable while dreaming, certainly, and perhaps viewable
in waking life as well, if I could only remember them, and bring them into view by applying

colored goo to a piece of cloth. Naturally I cannot remember the images I saw in the dream…
So I imagine I am seeing them again as I touch brush to canvas.

Could you tell us some more about your painting?

On the technical side of things, I mostly stick to oil paint on canvas, though occasionally I
will mess around with acrylics, especially if I am painting live in a performance situation.
Most of the time I do some preparatory thumbnails and then some more worked up sketches

to get a fix on the composition of the piece, and the pictorial elements I wish to include. Often
I will make a rather finished drawing before beginning work on a large canvas. There’s really
nothing too complicated about the painting part. I often will use a colored- ground canvas or
apply a thin layer of paint to stain the canvas darker and set a tone- then I will make a mono-
tone version as an underpainting, to set the dark and light arrangement, and over this I apply
the colors, sometimes in layers thinly letting them dry between, sometimes all at once with
all- wet paint. The final details come towards the end of the process. I like oil paints because
I often make changes while working, and oils allow the freedom to do things over, and I like
the inherent luscious richness of oils. The secret ingredient is time- I can easily lose myself in
the work, and large, detailed pieces can take a bit of time to make, even working very quickly.
I work until something is finished, and don’t mind if it takes a while.

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