Early Narratives  1979-1983

In my early work, I wanted art to be something true and real. I thought about pictures as symbolic representations of psychological struggles I was going through. I could almost never come up with an “answer” to my issues but the picture codified this dilemma into art- which was the next best thing to coming up with an answer. Whenever possible, I had the picture itself be an active record of this experience. For example, as I was torn between the question of making love or making art, I devised a picture where I would paint myself seated while a friend stroked my thigh, keeping me aroused while I painted the picture. In this way, the artwork became a document of me questioning both sides of the issue. This idea took its extreme in the Woman sculpture, a piece I devised to lose my virginity to. I spent a year modeling this lifesize woman in clay that I would ravish and then cast in bronze with all the marks of that experience on her. In the end, however, I found a happier ending- but the sculpture served her purpose.