Animal environments

Since my very early work of six years ago I have been interested in the problem of positive-negative space, animal shapes, and in evoking moods. In earlier versions of my work I dealt with extremely simplified, almost primitive horse shapes. The horses often had oversized birds perched on their backs. Those animal forms were placed within brightly-colored background areas. The backgrounds were composed of simple geometric shapes that because of their colors, seemed to hint at circus environments. Since these first paintings, I have become more aware of, and more interested in, the plastic elements of painting. The animals and animal-human combinations shown in this thesis exhibition appear rigid, somewhat like statues with their immobility. Any distortion has to do with satisfying structural needs more than symbolic ones. My somewhat spontaneous and emotional approach to painting has predominance over objective control of technique, color, and design. Later 1 would work back into the painting, paying more attention to the structure, design, and organization. I kept working and re-working the painting, going back and forth from conscious emphasis on plastic elements to working emotively and intuitively again. I have tried to achieve some kind of union between feeling and reality