Wizard

One lazy Saturday afternoon, while I was living in Minneapolis, I was overcome with a burning urge to do Detail. Tiny, complex, bloody baroque detail. What can I say; these fits come upon me.

Well, okay, so what to do? Basically, I just picked a notion out of thin air. Say, a wizard. Because a wizard might reasonably be expected to wear elaborate clothing embossed or embroidered with intricate patterns.

Looking back, I was appalled, even at the time, by my choice of colors, driven as it was primarily by a desire for contrast. But son of a gun if it didn't seem to work, and this to date has been the piece that has most consistently gotten the best reaction.

original: 9"x12", acrylic, circa 1980-81

I did rather drive myself nuts, though, with all those, itsy-bitsy, eentsy-weentsy, little lines. Can you say: "surface tension?"

--23 August 1997