3rd Day In the late mid to late 90s it became apparent I was not going to die. It changed things dramatically. I had to address living and going forward. I fell in love. I began teaching again after 10 years. The painted narrative expanded . A trip to west Texas inspired a cycle of 18 little paintings ( 11X14) of Punchinellos Journey to the West . Concurrently I was finishing my Punchinello in America cycle -- 4 paintings that together were 9 feet tall and 21 feet long -- the paintings explored anger and triumph. One dealer exclaimed “whos going to buy this?” . I exhibited it at 55 Mercer Street Gallery. From 95 to 2000 I painted the gym. I love to paint with black, both pigments and mixed. The gym paintings were filled with black but also the fractures and reassembling of the self. All these themes dealt with an exploration of self in terms of the body and society. I met the poet Stanley Kunitz around then, he was a great friend of Gustons with whom he shared an idea of the mythologized autobiography as a source for narrative in painting and poetry. I have come to share that belief and I thank Stanley for opening that door. So Punchinello is both I and not I, his experiences are ones I had, fear, might have or want to have.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 23:59:03 +0000
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