I have been highly influenced by Francis Bacon's use of the triptych as a valid, contemporary artistic expression. One thinks of the triptych and we connect it to religious works of medieval times but Bacon has shown us that the triptych is still a potent form of expression in contemporary art. To divide a subject into three panels produces a different artwork from painting the same subject in one canvas. The viewer is drawn and deeply engaged because he/she must trace the relationship of the figures from one panel to the next. Furthemore, painting is a spiritual experience; therefore, well suited to the triptych format of older times. And why stop with a triptych? After completing the triptych, I worked on a pentaptych, a work consisting of five panels and then a diptych, a work of two panels. The triptych, pentaptych and the diptych connects the past with the contemporary, the profane with the sacred.
This triptych is entitled To Paradise and Back. A couple of things you should know about my art. All my figures are masked. Sometimes they might have a painted face on but that is also another form of masking. The inspiration for the masked figures is the Venice Carnival. You will find that I represent one or two figures in my paintings. Almost never do I paint a group of figures. I am not into groups at all. The triptych format was then perfect. It allowed me to include three figures but each gets its own panel. By the way, good luck with being happy in paradise.
This diptych is entitled The Gate Keepers. The two panels are not to hang next to each other but with an entrance between them, whether it be a door or any other passegeway. I use only a few colors in each painting - two or three at the most plus titanium white. The color black is absent from my work of the last few years but it will be making a comeback in the next batch of paintings I will work on. There is not much one can control about one's life but I certainly can control who ends up in my paintings. The gate keepers will make sure of that.
This pentaptych is entitled The Gaze. I worked on it as if it were a triptych and then I added one panel on the left and then I added the panel on the right. In order for a triptych or pentaptych to work, each panel has to connect to the next one and usually the background tends to be a connecting link. Since there was no room to connect them by background, I designed these lines or bars going through the figures. If you read them as bars, are the figures in a cage or are we in a box?
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