Fireworks

Oil on canvas, 48 X 32 inches, 2005

Fireworks was begun on a rejected abstract expressionist painting of mine. I used some of the compositional lines of the earlier work to suggest the structure and content of the present work. It was created without preconception or preliminary drawings. I used paints thinned with alkyd resins and worked in an open brushwork technique with a relatively soft paint. The colors work in contrast to each other to create an energetic and dynamic space that emphasizes form and space with diaphanous and transparent qualities. The interior of the figure is filled with cloud-like structures in minute detail, and the heart is suggested by the red form, the vertical line of which further suggests a catastrophic event. People still debate whether this is a male or female figure.