These are two of the oldest pieces I still have that have never been painted over, and still hold an important place among my collection of my own work. It's not that I don't like what I used to do, just, as an artist, I have trouble keeping things that don't best represent me and my work...and if it's not good enough for me, why would I pass it on to a buyer as if it was?
Anyways, these two pieces were made around the same time, and I'm not sure what it was about them, but from the outset I really felt they were leading somewhere important. The above piece, Men of the Sun, is one of the first that I remember having a specifically ancient subject. The sphinx and sun dominate the center of the piece, while abstract objects and shapes move within and around the setup. I think it begins to create that shallow-but-complex, maybe naive, depth that has come to dominate much of my work.
The piece below, I Dreamt and When I Awoke I Almost Lost My Mind. was one of the first pieces I remember being overtly emotional while integrating a more symbolic approach...and it also marked a painting that led to a move away from human representation in my work that I am just now getting back to. I think the drama and energy really hit a nerve for me, and I found it difficult to attack the same subject again with equal interest, emotion, and believability.
Both pieces were a bit of a shift toward abstraction, yet both were restrained enough to hold representation of the subject matter. I'm not sure either immediately led to the place I am now, but they are two pieces which stand out, to me, among the older and recent work that I've done.
Take a look at these two keystone pieces in my work...
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