Night

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After finishing the first RECUPERATION series, THE NIGHT awakened my imagination. In the 1990’s I lived and painted in a loft at 4th and Brannan Streets. The neighborhood is defined by its lengthy blocks and warehouses, which at that time were being developed into residential and artist lofts. Lonely streets led to the towers of downtown San Francisco, but at night the neighborhood became a hostile place. Painting these bare rectangles, I tried to portray San Francisco in all its splendor despite the spare surroundings and danger.  I was roused to transform my rather ordinary corner into myth through cinematic watercolors, as in the 4th AND BRANNAN series.  

These works led to a later series of paintings of rainy DIVISADERO with buses blazing at night.   

The waterfront EMBARCADERO paintings morphed out of a mysterious esplanade of palms, lit by cars and electric street lamps.

By night SPEED sets the mood in the city.  These paintings accelerated into my SPEED series, in which the subject and means coincide: I hurled paint across the paper to mimic the nocturnal blur of cars and lights, without destination.  I titled these semi-abstract compositions NIGHT VISION, illuminated by the mystery of the night.