These canvases may look like paintings, but really they’re more like drawings. I start with a number of light “painted” color-washes, followed by countless hours of dry brush “drawing” on top. A magnified sideview cutaway of the canvas surface would reveal a long range of tiny, similar-sized mountains: the weave of the canvas. The color-washes quickly fill the valley floors, but then I spend a great deal more time dry brushing the peaks and middle slopes with paint.  This seems to create a glowing quality that looks non-representational up close but at any distance creates a sudden illusion. I like that moment when the illusion takes place. Also, I use mostly primary colors plus black and white, almost like I’m a very slow, inkjet printer. I’m not recommending this approach; it's just what came naturally to me, and I liked the result.

But why all the big machines?  And why are some 3-dimensional?
I love mechanical technology for the implied movement but also for the way the reflected light feels like movement, too. As a kid, I was fascinated with all mechanical objects in our house, from pencil sharpeners, to the car, to the piano. Even objects like spoons and bottles amazed me. Going to the famed Oshkosh Air Show with Juli, in the early 1980s, transfixed me. For years, I raced an Austin Healey 100-4 more because of the way it looked than the way it drove.  

What started to interest me most, though, was the vague boundary between Illusion and reality. I was poking fun at the visual illusion of my 2D paintings by supporting them with a shiny, 3D structure. That thin zone between 2 and 3 dimensions fascinated me. The “Bicycle Painting” was the ultimate expression of this.  A 3D chain passes through a 2D illusion — is it a decorated bicycle or a rideable painting? It’s been in museums, but I’ve also ridden it on the track.

The “Bicycle Painting” is one of the two favorite things I’ve made. Why did I stop creating them?  It was time to make a legitimate living plus illustration led to a connection with the very things I loved to make art about (see the section on “Illustration” in the Gallery). I hope retirement will include more of this work.