Paintings

The dual nature of oil paint, that is, its ability to mimic reality and at the same time retain the nature of the oily substance that it is, fascinates me. This oil painting is based on a picture that happened to be in a grab bag of photos purchased at a flea market. When sorting through the snap shots this image caught my eye because it records an instant that parallels two innocents, the boy’s age, perhaps six or seven and the innocence of the time the photo was taken, the 1950’s. And, like the duality of paint, there was certainly a double nature during the 1950’s. I guard against nostalgic overdose, but I remember the wonder years the fifties were; my experiments with invisible ink, the secret Long Horn Club, the career choices available in the back of the comic books and the jokes in the Bazooka Joe Bubble Gum wrappers. All this with the anxious undertones of the cold war. A duality of memory and reality.

Compulsive collector that I am, I like things with a history, I love to oil paint and recreating this image in paint allows me time for greater contemplation. Painting keeps the image permanent and helps me to understand who I am and where I have been.