River Series

From 22/08/2022 To 31/10/2022

River series

The series, began as a challenge from my poet/writer friend (Glen Mannisto), to create 6 paintings in 6 months from the vantage point of view of a River Front Tower’s penthouse in Detroit. Because of this unique opportunity, I was able to use the condo as a studio for a year to study and create this completely new, and for me, unique body of work. 

Observing the river and the city from a higher vantage point was captivating.  I realized immediately, that the beauty and light of the natural sky without any obstructing buildings, was constantly changing, evolving from minute to minute. The horizon line became a fixed bench mark and for the first time it made sense to use it as an anchor and to explore abstraction. Like Chinese characters which originated from pictorial images, and which I grew up with,  my paintings evolved into a new language for me. Delineating the landscape I observed a simpler geometry; my color palette was not a direct observation of the scenery but an interpretation of the feeling it induced, from looking at the subject. Moreover there is the uneasy tension between the river and the industrial complex along the river so the series became an exploration of that tension between the natural  and industrial landscape.