After my AIDS / ANXIETY series, I suffered a severe herniation of neck discs requiring a series of excruciating surgeries that have resulted in a lifetime of wheelchairs and chronic pain. My art changed as well. I rented a studio apartment in the hills of San Mateo with a swimming pool for physical rehabilitation and painted watercolors at an easy pace, looking for the inner light that could heal my soul.
Recuperation (TENS unit – for cervical pain control) 1990 #6 Watercolor
The RECUPERATION series centers on intimate California landscapes with fog drifting through hills and trees. In these watercolors, the first of which date from the later 1980’s, I painted my inner landscape as well as the city from interior windows. Looking at them now, I see forms becoming and growing, rather than the work of an artist becalmed and out of the race. At my current age of 75 I am once again returning to calm, serene watercolors, tentatively putting one foot after another after another difficult convalescence.
