"One of my eyes is far sighted and one is near sighted, and I cannot look with both of them at the same time. This creates a split in my vision. I think that the vision of my left far-sighted eye has provided the basis of the more social pop art backgrounds of my production design for films, while my right near-sighted eye has focused on the up close and personal faces without backgrounds.
The left eye sees where I go, the right eye sees. who I am.
When I traveled around the world as a young man in the early 1970's, I was deeply inspired by the variety of places I visited and the people I encountered. As an artist I have attempted over the years since then to express the spirit of the many people who now travel within me as I continue my journey.
In 1972, I wrote my parents from Bangkok, Thailand the following: "What this trip has done to impress on me again - on the gut level - the realities (as I see them) of how most of the world lives - the human condition. It's so easy to forget when in the States - what the human experience is for most of the world. It's very important for my well being I believe to keep being reminded - it helps me get in touch somehow with some more basic level and realities within me. I realize that I want an essential part of my art work to be going out into the world to record its impressions on me."
Many of the people I now paint or draw have come from my imagination. I don't know who will emerge when I begin. But I do know where most of them come from. They are derived mostly from the people I encountered while traveling. Over time, some of them have become embedded and then embellished like pearls into almost real characters within my soul. They resonate as a group inside of me - creating a dialogue amongst my inner collection of people.
As I get older I see similarities between past and more recent faces. They are becoming looser and more expressionist, but they are still the same people. More and more the act of making art is almost like a religion to me, which provides a belief structure for me to have faith in."
