1:46 PM: i took 3/11/25 ano kato, to the next level today, being careful to work lightly and leave a lot of white space. two more figures have appeared, both viewed from above, drawn from the collection of photos i’ve shot over decades. i’m just in love with views from above.
you could call this a progression from my original ano kato series of paintings, in that i’ve let go of the need to focus on one view from above, allowing a numbver of those views to mingle in a largely invented space; in this case an architectural space. it’s a tad diebenkorn-esque, one might observe. his ocean park series is a breath away. i’m referring to his sense of space, which is of course “abstract.” i’ve come to take issue with the whole notion of “abstract” versus “realist” art. but that’s another direction. what i’m trying to say is that the two distinct phases of my evolution as a painter are joining, in a phase one could call post-ano kato.
ano kato in greek means topsy turvy, a phrase i found useful when referring to my passion for views from above. over the years, i’ve shot hundreds of photos, mainly in architectural settings of such views. the ones that turned me on became paintings. so i say diebenkorn-esque because he has allowed me to find a way to make paintings that are figurative, because they contain figures, and which are now part of an imagined space, joining one another in imagined relationships without however interacting with one another.
3/11/25 ano kato, 20x18”, oil on linen, on day two
an example of a 2014 ano kato painting, 16×16”
skouloudis’ shop, 1979, andros, egg tempera on board. 16x10”
so in this 1979 painting of skoulidis standing in front of his shop on the island of andros, we see the figure anchored in a traditional space. for me, at that time, it was exciting to paint the strong emotions i felt; the fact that he was, as you can tell from the black ribbon on his lapel, in mourning. we frequented his shop and he was a player in the story of my journey to greece and the 15 years i spent there.
the broom; the stack of skip containers, were all part of the story. my story…our story.
what i’m up to in this post-ano kato period is very different and exactly the same. while i feel a deep connection to the figures i’m painting, i don’t know them or anything about them, nor do they know me.
they are and will remain a mystery. chance has brought them together in paint on canvas and they inhabit an imagined space, forever on the edge of bumping into one another.