12/13/2021 creek oil/collage at the end of my painting day today.
3:17 PM: I began work on the new 12/13/2021 creek oil/collage, which is 27x63” on extra fine French portrait linen tacked to the wall. so far, you won’t find any figures from the tokyo olympics. what you will find, if you examine the composition closely, are figures inspired by ancient roman mosaics & patterns inspired by contemporary iranian art. and all this is, for the moment, brought together by my favorite yellow: brilliant yellow deep.like it’s two predecessors, it tells a story. but it’s not a preconceived story. it’s one that takes form in the process of mark making. thus, it’s not bound by any particular direction; just an overall sense of playfulness, with an underlying mystery.
BELOW you will find 3 stages of development, each about an hour apart.
11:39 AM: in the ‘70’s, while living and painting in greece, I developed a relationship with the famed karoghiozopaiktis sotiris spatharis. his studio was in the peaks neighborhood, not far from my studio at the time. I shot photos of him making his karaghiozis figures, and this is one of them.
spatharis was known throughout greece as a master karaghiozis player, and as one might expect, he was as humble as can be. he delighted in showing me his latest figures and sets, and once came to our appartment in athens to perform for my son dimitris & his friends. dimitri was very excited, and began creating karaghiozis performances in our andros home for his friends. the sets were created by his grandma, my mother-in-law, niki karagatsi.
while the banana bread I made is baking, i’m about to start work on 12/13/2021 creek oil/collage & will update later this afternoon.