"Paradox of Plenty, Eastern Estate View"

Semi Abstract Guidepost

Paradox of Plenty is a totally random title.  The Eastern Estate View part of the title comes from years and years of naming paintings, quasi-landscapes to be more exact.  What are you supposed to name a landscape that doesn’t exist in this dimension?  Any suggestions? 

I have always liked the word estate and I view my life, through my eyes, my experience, all of what I am, as an estate. Value and riches are usually attached to the word estate and I value the opportunity to be alive as a precious gift, more valuable than the finest gold and silver, so….. This, like all the other landscapes, or scenes of mine is completely fictitious, a consequential landscape that was birthed by excess paint, opportunity, and the ever so present blank canvas. 

I had a gallery for 6 years, in downtown Gastonia, NC USA.  In the back of the gallery was my studio and I had stretched a giant 12-foot (370cm x 182cm) canvas on the wall to use as a backdrop.  One evening when I had first met my now ex-wife we were talking, getting to know each other in my studio.  She was sitting on a love seat, and I was pacing around, engaging in her conversation while we listened to music, and I sketched on this backdrop of a canvas.  I was explaining to her how my work comes into being and using what you see sketched out here as an example.

It remained a sketch on that wall for about 5 years.  I painted hundreds of paintings over this painting.  After about six years in the gallery, I decided to take a few years off.  I converted about 2500 square feet of my home into a killer workspace and ran across this piece which had been rolled up and preserved.  I ended up giving it to my framer, who is the best framer in the world mind you and she had it stretched.

I started finishing it about 3 years ago and then again in 2023. I really enjoyed seeing this piece become beautiful.  This is a constant structure in almost all my early work from 1996 to 2015.  The elongated obelisk, curved here with a flat square cap on it, or platform.  The steps at the base end up resurfacing as the concepts of a woman later in my work.  The colors are insane, everything about this piece is insane.  More can be seen in this piece as you read or get to know more about other paintings of mine.