I painted this after talking with the great Colombian artist Fernando Botera. He had praised my student work in Colombia and I started going off on my tangent, but referring to his work, too. Botero has done versions of art history, from Mona Lisa to the Arnolfi wedding. This is a bus as an airplane flying through the Andes Mountains. There's an angel and a little devil ready to do his thing if he can. You know in Colombia each bus is individually owned and painted and driven by the owner/driver. He selects the pictures, angels and saints or the patron saint.
Most of my pieces are combinations of painting, photo, print and handpainting and collage. If I need to get an extra dimension, in the abstract art the painting asks for what it needs, so you just give it to it. It's as if I have a dialogue with the piece. The picture tells you. That's why I love abstraction: every picture demands a different treatment, a different solution.
In 1979 I won a prestigious national competition, the Salon de Arte Joven, (The Salon for Young Artists) for three large constructions, life-size, 8-10 feet. This image is a fragment from that construction.
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(707)431-8388.
From 1972-80 I did a series of 25 big constructions, 8x10 feet each. These were wooden-framed metal, blinking lights, three dimensional, a relief. This one has a Japanese landscape in with the geometric stuff. Notice how their kimonos are collage, combining different patterns. This piece was exhibited in 1980 at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota and is now in the collection of Colombo-Americano Center in Bogota.